[1] Following his release from prison he was placed under close surveillance by the fascist authorities and was unable to regain his position with the Italian railways, thus Montaldi's mother became the sole earner supporting the family.
During the 1950s Montaldi developed links with a diverse range of individuals and organisations involved in far-left politics, such as Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarity) in France and others in Germany, England and the United States.
The book collects the life stories of people at the very margins of society, dissidents, partisans, small-time criminals, prostitutes, as well as others, and narrates these in their own words and particular vernacular.
During that same period he also opened an art-gallery in Cremona, exhibiting contemporary international artists, and was involved in the making of several documentaries, one of which he directed himself, La Matàna de Po (1959).
[3] While continuing his collaboration with publishers such as Feltrinelli and Einaudi, over the next decade he focused primarily on his own research and publications, moving away also from political activism, until his premature death in 1975.