Gli italiani negli Stati Uniti del XX secolo, by Matteo Pretelli and Anna Ferro, Rome, Centro Studi Emigrazione Roma, 2005, 375 pp., €20, ISBN 8885438229

Abstract

Gli italiani negli Stati Uniti del XX secolo is split into two very distinct parts. In the first part, 'Il ruolo dei fasci italiani nelle comunita`italo-americane negli anni Venti: un quadro sociale', Pretelli charts the impact of the fasci orgainisations in the American-Italian community in the 1920s, assessing their success in spreading fascist propaganda. Pretelli's analysis draws on a wide range of groups and institutions, examining actions and responses of political figures, trade unions, community leaders and cultural organs. Part two, Ferro's study 'Continuita`e trasformazione dell'identita`etnica. Studio etnografico degli italo-americani a Boston' is very different, examining ways in which 15 second-and third-generation American-Italians in Boston are able to articulate their ethnic identity in the late 1990s. Pretelli's study is divided into three chapters. His introduction examines existing scholarship on the relationship between fascism and American-Italians, indicating an absence of research on the 1920s, when the Italian government sought to use the fasci as a means of obtaining the consensus of American-Italians, before the policy was abandoned in the 1930s to avoid confrontation with the American government. Chapter 1, 'Sviluppo dei fasci negli Stati Uniti d'America', examines the composition of the American-Italian community during the 1920s and explores the popularity of fascism in America. Pretelli suggests that the rise of the Republican Right explains Italian fascism's popularity with Americans, while the positive response of the pro-Democrat American-Italian community was due to Mussolini's success in raising the international standing of Italy. Chapter 2, 'L'affermazione dei fasci nella communita`italo-americana: un percorso difficile', contrasts support for fascism and hostility towards the fasci organizations. Reluctance to be seen as anti-American, the limited standing of the fasci leaders in the community and close links between the fasci and Rome prevented strong support for the groups. Chapter 3, 'Propaganda fascista negli Stati Uniti d'America', charts the attempts of the fasci to promote ideas of italianita`, discipline, the family and religion through the press, journals, schools, cultural organizations, trade unions and dopolavoro clubs, underlining the limits of each medium and the continued dominance of existing, non-fascist, cultural structures. Pretelli concludes that the fasci failed to build consensus both in the American-Italian community and in American public opinion due to their extremism and the perception that they impeded American-Italian integration. Ferro's ethnographic study comprises ten chapters. Chapter 1, 'Considerazioni teoriche sulla questione dell'etnicita`', traces debates on ethnicity in America, where large numbers of ethnic groups have been assimilated over a short period of time. Chapter 2, 'La presenza italiana negli Stati Uniti, Boston e il quartiere italiano', outlines the demographics of the Italian presence in America (leading to some overlap with P...