Introduction. "Before the Journey": Rossi-Doria and the United States

The introduction describes the relationship between Rossi-Doria and the United States in the period preceding his first American trip, made in October 1951. In the 1930s Rossi-Doria was already engaged in detailed research on American agriculture; in the postwar period he looked to the United States to start reconstruction in Italy. With the launch of the Marshall Plan in 1947, the professor from Portici became an important interlocutor of the Truman administration, both to appraise the reclamation projects to finance with the American funds, and to understand the terms of the debate on agrarian reform in Italy and the first phases of its realization.