Italy's Many Diasporas / Edition 1

by Donna R. Gabaccia

Overview

Italy's residents are a migratory people. Since 1800 well over 27 million left home, but over half also returned home again. As cosmopolitans, exiles, and 'workers of the world' they transformed their homeland and many of the countries where they worked or settled abroad. But did they form a diaspora? Migrants maintained firm ties to native villages, cities and families. Few felt much loyalty to a larger nation of Italians. Rather than form a 'nation unbound,' the transnational lives of Italy's migrants kept alive international regional cultures that challenged the hegemony of national states around the world.
This ambitious and theoretically innovative overview examines the social, cultural and economic integration of Italian migrants. It explores their complex yet distinctive identity and their relationship with their homeland taking a comprehensive approach.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781857285833
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/27/2000
Series:	Global Diasporas
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Donna R. Gabaccia is Charles H. Stone Professor of American History at The University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. Before Italians: Making Italian culture at home and abroad 2. Making Italians at home and abroad, 1790-1893 3. Workers of the World, 1870-1914 4. Transnationalism as a way of working-class life 5. Nationalism and internationalism in Italy's proletarian diasporas, 1870 - 1914 6. Nation, empire and diaspora: Fascism and its opponents 7. Postwar Italy: from sending to receiving Nation 8. Civilta italiana and the making of multi-ethnic nations

Editorial Reviews

'One of the most perceptive critical syntheses in recent English-language historiography ... a fascinating reading for specialists and laypersons alike.' - International Review of Social History

From the Publisher