This remarkable book outlines the historical framework and the main concepts of the literature on industrial districts. It illustrates a new approach to the study of industrial development, based on well-known industrial districts analysis. Giacomo Becattini has written an authoritative volume which, starting with the theory of districts, explores key aspects of contemporary capitalism. The book concludes that industrial districts are not a provisory phenomenon but a variant of the capitalist mode of production, where financial relationships are relatively less important, and inter- human ones play an unusually important role. Such is the basis for their specific competitive advantage. Academics, politicians and students interested in local development and also industrial development will find much to learn in Industrial Districts, as will industrial geographers and historians of industry and of economic thought.