Oh Capitano!: Celso Cesare Moreno-Adventurer, Cheater, and Scoundrel on Four Continents

by Rudolph J. Vecoli, Francesco Durante, Donna R. Gabaccia (Editor), Elizabeth O. Venditto (Translator)

Overview

The story of Celso Cesare Moreno, one of the most famous of the emigrant Italian elites or "prominenti." Moreno traveled the world lying, scheming, and building an extensive patron/client network to to establish his reputation as a middleman and person of significance. Through his machinations, Moreno became a critical player in the expansion of western trade and imperialism in Asia, the trafficking of migrant workers and children in the Atlantic, and the conflicts of Americans and natives over the fate of Hawaii, and imperial competitions of French, British, Italian and American governments during a critically important era of imperial expansion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823279869
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	06/05/2018
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Rudolph J. Vecoli (Author)
Rudolph J. Vecoli (deceased) was director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

Francesco Durante (Author)
Francesco Durante is a journalist as well as Professor of literature at the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa as part of the Program in Modern Languages and Culture.

Donna R. Gabaccia (Edited By)
Donna R. Gabaccia is professor of history at University of Toronto and scholar of international migration, gender and food studies. She has written and edited fifteen books on U.S. immigration, migration in world history, and the history of the worldwide Italian diaspora.

Table of Contents

Preface
Rudolph J. Vecoli vii

Prologue
Francesco Durante ix

Introduction to the English-Language Edition: “Was Moreno a Sociopath?”
Donna R. Gabaccia xi

Translator’s Note xix

1. The Traveler’s Spirit 1

2. The Treasures of Asia 15

3. The Challenge of the Pacific 43

4. The Little Italian Slaves 63

5. The Enchanter of Hawaii 79

6. Celso’s Vendetta 95

7. Electoral Intermezzo 110

8. The New Italian America 123

9. The Destiny of Hawaii 155

10. The Sunset Road 172

Notes 187

Bibliography 215

Index 223

Editorial Reviews

Whether understood as a fake, a scoundrel, a chameleon, an adventurer, a speculator, a renegade, or simply a nut job (and Moreno was, in his lifetime, slapped with all these labels) or instead accepted as a “dreamer” (Moreno’s preferred description of himself, especially when comparing himself grandiosely to Marco Polo or Christopher Columbus), Moreno the man jumps from the pages of this book. The power of biography to illustrate and to illuminate the past and the individual life in its social context should never be underestimated.

Donna R. Gabaccia

Whether understood as a fake, a scoundrel, a chameleon, an adventurer, a speculator, a renegade, or simply a nut job (and Moreno was, in his lifetime, slapped with all these labels) or instead accepted as a “dreamer” (Moreno’s preferred description of himself, especially when comparing himself grandiosely to Marco Polo or Christopher Columbus), Moreno the man jumps from the pages of this book. The power of biography to illustrate and to illuminate the past and the individual life in its social context should never be underestimated.—Donna R. Gabaccia, from the introduction

From the Publisher