ABOUT THIS BOOK

Italian immigration from 1945 to the present is an American phenomenon too little explored in our historical studies. Until now. In this new collection, Laura E. Ruberto and Joseph Sciorra edit essays by an elite roster of scholars in Italian American studies. These interdisciplinary works focus on leading edge topics that range from politics of the McCarren-Walter Act and its effects on women to the ways Italian Americans mobilized against immigration restrictions. Other essays unwrap the inner workings of multi-ethnic power brokers in a Queens community, portray the complex transformation of identity in Boston’s North End, and trace the development of Italian American youth culture and how new arrivals fit into it. Finally, Donna Gabaccia pens an afterword on the importance of this seventy-year period in U.S. migration history.

Contributors: Ottorino Cappelli, Donna Gabaccia, Stefano Luconi, Maddalena Marinari, James S. Pasto, Rodrigo Praino, Laura E. Ruberto, Joseph Sciorra, Donald Tricarico, and Elizabeth Zanoni.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Laura E. Ruberto is a professor of humanities in the Arts and Cultural Studies Department at Berkeley City College. She is the author of Gramsci, Migration, and the Representation of Women 's Work in Italy and the U.S. Joseph Sciorra is Director for Academic and Cultural Programs at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY. He is author of Built with Faith: Italian American Imagination and Catholic Material Culture in New York City.

REVIEWS

"This book illuminates a rarely seen side of contemporary immigration to the U.S., whose prevailing image is of non-Europeans, coming from Africa, Asia, and Latin America--yet also among the immigrants are hundreds of thousands of Italians. The authors of the volume show how the new immigrants ' presence alters our understanding of the white ethnic story as viewed through the lenses of families, communities, and politics. The book represents an indispensable contribution to ethnic and immigration studies."--Richard Alba, co-author of Strangers No More: The Challenges of Integration in North America and Western Europe

"An exceptionally good volume that is innovative and will change the game in Italian American studies. This magnificent collection has no competition. "--Graziella Parati, author of Migration Italy: The Art of Talking Back in a Destination Culture

"New Italian Migrations to the United States, Vol. 1, provides distinctive and significant insights into recent Italian immigrants while also offering instructive comparisons with other migrant populations." --Italian American Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover

Title

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Real Italians, New Immigrants Laura E. Ruberto and Joseph Sciorra

1. Italy, Italian Americans, and the Politics of the McCarran-Walter Act / Stefano Luconi

2. “In the name of God . . . and in the interest of our country”: The Cold War, Foreign Policy, and Italian Americans' Mobilization against Immigation Restriction / Maddalena Marinari

3. “A Wife in Waiting”: Women and the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act in Il Progresso Italo-Americano Advice Columns / Elizabeth Zanoni

4. Immigrants and Ethnics: Post–World War II Italian Immigration and Boston’s North End (1945–2016) / James S. Pasto

5. New Second Generation Youth Culture in the Twilight of Italian American Ethnicity / Donald Tricarico

6. The Kingmakers of Fresh Pond Road: Ethnic-Political Brokers in an Italian American Community / Ottorino Cappelli and Rodrigo Praino

Afterword / Donna Gabaccia

Contributors

Index