This is a detailed guide to the kingdom that flourished in southern Italy from 1734 until its annexation to the unified Italy in 1861. As an introduction, it is an abridged edition of the author's print book of the same title, containing the complete main text but without the endnotes, bibliography or specialized appendices on topics such as orders of knighthood and titles of nobility. That volume is the first major history of the kingdom published in English.Encompassing Sicily and the Italian peninsula south of Rome, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was the wealthiest, most populous and most technologically advanced of the pre-unitary states of Italy. It is the region from which the greatest number of Italians emigrated after 1880 when, in the wake of the unification, its economy worsened.This book brings us the history of the place but also its people. Actual and virtual visitors will find it highly informative, full of details rarely published elsewhere. The author is an "insider" resident in the former kingdom, the land of his ancestors, a place he has studied for decades. This work reflects uncommon insight, correcting misperceptions by bringing us facts.
