Financial executive Jeffrey Steven Drobny, based in Minneapolis, MN, heads the global alternative investment firm Garda Capital Partners as its chief investment officer and a managing partner. In 2015, Jeffrey Drobny and his partners established the company with an emphasis on disciplined and strategic portfolio management designed to sustain long-term gains. In his time away from the office, Jeff Drobny, who also owns a home in Scottsdale, Arizona, devotes his energies to vintage automobiles, fine wines, travel, and Italian history.

In the book The Italians by Luigi Barzini, readers will find a time-tested guide to forming an impression of Italian people throughout history. Politician and journalist Barzini was born in Milan and educated in the United States. His father, also a journalist, edited the renowned Corriere della Sera newspaper. During World War II, the younger Barzini suffered imprisonment for his opposition to the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini.

After an extensive career as a foreign correspondent covering political crises in Europe, Asia, and Africa, Barzini brought his erudition, experience, candor, and wit to writing the book The Italians. Published in English in 1964, The Italians has earned widespread praise from readers, many of whom regard it as a contemporary classic of nonfiction. Reviewers have noted both its trenchant criticism of the problems endemic to the Italian society of its time and its genuinely warm tone when discussing the country’s people and their many outstanding cultural achievements.