"A saga of a people, their struggles, and the triumphs in a new world, told with drama and passion....Should be read by all Americans interested in what binds us together, despite our different backgrounds and histories." — New York Times Book Review
"A saga of a people, their struggles, and the triumphs in a new world, told with drama and passion....Should be read by all Americans interested in what binds us together, despite our different backgrounds and histories." — Joseph V. Scelsa, New York Times Book Review
"A saga of a people, their struggles, and the triumphs in a new world, told with drama and passion....Should be read by all Americans interested in what binds us together, despite our different backgrounds and histories."
"A saga of a people, their struggles, and the triumphs in a new world, told with drama and passion....Should be read by all Americans interested in what binds us together, despite our different backgrounds and histories."
New York Times Book Review
The core of this gripping, panoramic chronicle is the mass emigration of Italians to the U.S. between 1880 and 1924. Their road to assimilation was marked by hard work, family solidarity, tradition-laden weddings and joyous festivals, but also by poverty, miserable housing, dangerous working conditions and marriages that ``often seethed with tensions'' despite a public image of unity and warmth. Mangione ( Mussolini's March on Rome ) and Morreale ( A Few Virtuous Men ) trace discrimination against Italian Americans, arguing that politicians and the media fanned prejudice after WW II by resurrecting the Mafia image of the 1890s. They discuss Italian Americans' awareness or denial of their heritage, providing cameos of Sacco and Vanzetti, Fiorello LaGuardia, Frank Sinatra, Don DeLillo, John Ciardi, Francis Coppola and dozens more. Early chapters discuss Italian adventurers (such as Columbus) and Italians who fought in the American Revolution and the Civil War; a later one touches on intermarriage and divorce, which have contributed to the decline of immigrant culture. A magnificent saga that illuminates a century of accomplishment and struggle. Photos. (Sept.)
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Since Columbus's discovery of the New World, Italians have played a vital part in shaping the Americas. La Storia (``the story'') tells of these ethnic struggles and triumphs from 1492 to the present. This is not the personal voyage recently taken by Gay Talese in Unto the Sons ( LJ 2/1/92), although La Storia is more potent and valuable because of its inclusive breadth and scope. Mangione ( Mount Allegro , Columbia Univ. Pr., 1981) and Morreale ( A Few Virtuous Men , Tundra Bks., 1973. o.p.) report on a vast array of historically important topics: from the environment that spawned the mass migration overseas to the challenge of survival in a mostly hostile new homeland to the decline of religion and the tightknit traditions currently affecting the second and third generations. Past and present names (Amerigo Vespucci, Don DeLillo) and events (colonization, labor movements) are expounded upon so that the text has solid reference value. An important complement to history or Italian collections.-- David Nudo, ``Library Journal''
YA-- The richness and variety of the Italian immigrant experience in America are captured here. Portraying the journey from the harshness and poverty of rural Italy and Sicily to the teeming ghettos of New York, Boston, and other American cities, the authors tell of the five-and-a-half million Italians who made the voyage. Utilizing newspaper articles, diaries, and novels to record first-hand recollections, their stories provide a microcosm of the immigrant experience, in general, and a record of the many contributions of Italian-Americans to the cultural mosaic of the United States. A rich source of materials for understanding the multicultural experience.-- Richard Lisker, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Fleeing poverty in the Old Country, more than five million Italians immigrated to America between 1880 and 1924--to find hardship, prejudice, and eventually, assimilation. This expansive account of the their history (enlivened by personal narratives of immigrants and their descendants) reaches from colonial times to the present, but the period of mass migration forms the heart of the story. Twenty-four pages of b&w photos. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
