[citation needed] The style and its underlying social goals related to general 19th-century artistic developments that occurred in many countries, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, which stemmed from nationalist movements and intellectuals' responses to the effects of industrialization.
In Italy, the national origin of verismo, especially in literature and opera, was a profound sympathy for the disadvantaged working people, whose life, for the most part, consisted of hard labor, poverty, and oppression.
For example, the authors Giovanni Verga, Luigi Capuana, Domenico Ciampoli, Renato Fucini, Matilde Serao introduced the language of common people into their works and made extensive use of dialects.
Early works in this genre were Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana (1890) which chose rural folk, poor city dwellers, and bohemian characters.
As explained by Boime, their “sketch style” and “non finito” (unfinished) look was both modern and a clean break with academic “polish”, but also the subject matter was often political as well, featuring socio-political issues such as the plight of women, workers, and farmers.