Marta Petrusewicz discusses her study of the nineteenth-century latifundia, or centralized estates, using the example of the aristocratic Barracco family who lived in the Calabria region of southern Italy.
In the second segment [14:20], Bernard Semmel, the author of The Idea of Imperialism, discusses imperialism from its inception in Rome over 2,000 years ago up to the twentieth century.
At the time of this interview, Petrusewicz, a Fellow at the National Humanities Center (1986-87), was professor of history at Princeton University.
Semmel, also a Fellow at the Center (1986-87), was professor of history at the State University of New York, Stony Brook.
This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
