Montenero Val Cocchiara is referred as Mundunur in the local dialect. It is a typical mountain village on the border of Italy’s Abruzzo and Molise regions. Its people retain unique traditions and character traits because of its relative seclusion. As fully revealed in this book—its history was tinted by contacts with numerous powerful groups over many centuries. Since Naples was the political and cultural heartbeat of south Italy, it sewed threads that tie Montenero to a heritage common to all living in the sunny south. Anyone with roots in south Italy will certainly benefit from reading this book. Readers will see the village as a microcosm of the world, where the forces of history and culture forge the character of people. This book has received praise in reviews in academic journals in the USA, Canada, and Italy.
Anyone with roots in south Italy will certainly benefit from reading this book. Readers will see the village as a microcosm of the world, where the forces of history and culture forge the character of people. This book has received praise in reviews in academic journals in the USA, Canada, and Italy.
Mundunur: A Mountain Village Under the Spell of South Italy
6"x9" paperback, 334 pages, 222 illustrations
Foreword by Valeria Cocozza, Ph.D., University of Molise
CHAPTERS:
- Table Talk: Legends of the Old Country
- A Foreigner Discovers the Ancestral Village
- Setting the Stage Between Land and Sky
- Footprints in Isernia Leading to Romanization
- Knock, Knock: Invasions from the North & South
- Spain Transforms a Kingdom into a Colony
- Nobles, Peasants, Rebels, and Relics
- Spanish Attempt to Restore the Kingdom
- The French Return and the Spanish Follow
- Quasi-Unification, Social Unrest, Emigration
- Political Undercurrents and World War I
- Back to Work: Tools, Land, and Home
- Modern Black Shirts: Dressing for World War II
- Postwar Pleasures and Pains
- Molise’s Future and Montenero Hereafter
- A Three-Day Fictional Tour of Montenero
- Postscript: Montenero’s Grand Relationship
- Notes, Appendices, Bibliography, Index