Emilio Sereni's classic work is now available in an English language edition. "History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape" is a synthesis of the agricultural history of Italy in its economic, social, and ecological context, from antiquity to the mid-twentieth century. From his perspective in the Italian tradition of cultural Marxism, Sereni guides the reader through the millennial changes that have affected the agriculture and ecology of the regions of Italy, as well as through the successes and failures of farmers and technicians in antiquity, the middle ages, the Renaissance, and the Industrial Revolution. In this sweeping historical survey, he describes attempts by successive generations to adapt Italy's natural environment for the purposes of agriculture and to respond to its changing ecological problems.

"History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape" first appeared in 1961. At the time of its publication it was a pathbreaking work, parallel in its importance for Italy to Marc Bloc's masterwork of 1931, "The Original Characteristics of French Rural History." Sereni invented the concept of the historical "agricultural landscape": an interdisciplinary characterization of rural life involving economic and social history, linguistics, archeology, art history, and ecological studies.

La storia del paesaggio agrario italiano dall'epoca della colonizzazione greca ed etrusca fino al tempi nostri, condotta con stretti riferimenti alla letteratura e all'arte, e con gli strumenti dello storico, dell'economista, del sociologo, dell'agronomo. Numerose riproduzioni di opere d’arte delle varie epoche (mosaici, tele, affreschi, dipinti e disegni sino a Renato Guttuso) permettono un continuo riscontro visivo con il racconto storico.