Valtellina and UNESCO Making a Global Landscape

The 'heroic' Valtellina of extreme northern Italy where Teuton and Latin, Protestant and Catholic, wood and stone meet and divide is brought alive in this scintillating story of how a proposed World Heritage landscape famous for its terraced agriculture is best understood as serving purposes well beyond those of the local agricultural production typically emphasized. -- John Agnew, UCLA; author of Place and Politics in Modern Italy In this innovative study of cultural preservation in the Valtellina region of modern Italy, Thomas Puleo demonstrates the persistent appeal and creative adaptability of the geographer's regional approach. Puleo's regional narrative of cultural and environmental adaptation in the Valtellina effectively blends the powerful synthesizing quality of the regional concept with Michel Serres' intriguing and sometimes enigmatic philosophy of the natural contract. The result is a provocative and highly readable story of the complex interpretative process involved in reconciling local and global narratives about the meaning and value of Valtellina's famed terraced landscapes. -- J. Nicholas Entrikin, University of Notre Dame