Available from October 9: pre-orderable now.

Year of publication: 2026


Synopsis:
In the history of Venice, 1951 is a turning point. The social-communist administration elected after the Liberation is defeated at the polls, putting an end to the only administrative experience that had attempted to reduce the gap between the city on water and the mainland. While the ruling classes and tourism operators celebrate their "golden years," the expulsion of inhabitants and productive activities from the historic center intensifies, with the dismantling of factories and the transfer of thousands of working-class families across the bridge.
Abandoning the rhetorical schemes of the so-called "problem of Venice," the book reconstructs that period through municipal council records, archival funds, and the living voice of the press of the time. Thus emerge the decisions that produced the current city and the discourses that made them acceptable: the failure to purge fascist hierarchs and industrialists, who soon returned to power; portions of the lagoon filled in and handed over to private interests; the exodus of the popular classes designed by architects in the name of urban renewal. After Non è città per poveri, another indispensable piece for understanding the physiognomy of today's Venice. A class city where living has become a luxury, not by vocation or destiny, but by precise political choices to which Paola Somma finally gives a face.


Other information:
Series: Fondamenta
Pages: 128
Language: Italian
ISBN: 9791280930514