This work examines Italian history from 1815 to 1849, when Italian unification was starting.

“Lucht’s engaging prose style and keen ethnographic eye provide for a captivating narrative on a form of population movement often in the news but rarely if ever really understood.” --Jeffrey E. Cole, author with Sally Booth of Dirty Work: Immigrants in Domestic Service, Agriculture, and Prostitution in Sicily. “Few ethnographers manage to integrate in-depth multi-sited fieldwork, enthralling narrative and innovative theory as well as Hans Lucht does in this study of existential reciprocity among Ghanaian fishermen forced by dwindling catches to embark on hazardous migrations to Europe in search of the wherewithall of life. In Lucht's capable hands, these stories become an allegory of our times.” --Michael Jackson, author of Life Within Limits: Well-Being in a World of Want. "An original, comprehensive, and skilled study, Darkness before Daybreak provides the reader with a real sense of the quality and meaning of existence in Ghana and in Naples, while providing enough historical and political/economic context to permit a nuanced critical analysis of globalization theory." --Peter Schneider, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Anthropology, Fordham University, and author with Jane Schneider of Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo.