Italians

This is a wonderful, quick read that brings alive a time gone by with fascinating stories and facts that still have something to teach us today. Other reviewers have done a great job of describing the content, so I won't repeat it here. But if you want to learn more about why and how and what it was like to immigrate to this country as a part of the great wave of immigration that brought the Italians and others, read this book. Because it's geared to kids it doesn't get bogged down with arcane detail, but the kids it aims at are old enough that the language holds an adult's interest too. And if you have a kid who's studying this period in history, or if you want them to have some idea of how his or her own family came to this country, give them this book. The pictures and stories will draw them in.

The Italian Americans is an informative and entertaining exploration of Italian immigrants in the United States and their descendants. Though it's targeted at junior-high students, the book is written in a clear, concise style that will interest adult readers as well.Petrini examines the reasons why so many Italians left their native land between 1880 and 1920 to start a new life in the United States. She describes their living conditions in their new home, the sometimes arduous jobs that Italian American men, women, and children worked at in order to build their new lives, and the discrimination and exploitation many had to cope with.The author documents some surprising facts: Did you know that a presidential order curtailed the civil liberties of Italian Americans during World War II, because of an unfounded fear that they might be spies for their native Italy? Thousands were actually incarcerated in camps by the U.S. government. And the biggest mass lynching ever documented in the United States took place in 1891, when an angry mob executed 19 innocent Sicilian-born residents of New Orleans. I didn't know about these injustices; Petrini's book describes these and other instances of discrimination against the new immigrants and their children.Other chapters describe the Italian Americans' successful efforts to integrate into and contribute to their new society while preserving their own culture in "Little Italy" neighborhoods around the country. The book also discusses more recent contributions by the descendants of the immigrants in business, literature, science, and the arts.Petrini makes it all come to life with plenty of first-hand accounts and interviews with immigrants and their children, and many wonderful old photographs highlight the text.As a third-generation Italian American, I can say that this book made me feel prouder of my heritage than I was before -- and more informed about it, as well!

Since September 11, an undercurrent of anti-immigration feeling has targeted new Americans, in particular Arab-Americans. It's as if most of us have forgotten that we wouldn't be here ourselves if our parents, grandparents or greats hadn't emigrated to the United States. So it seemed particularly timely to me when I came across The Italian-Americans, part of a series on Immigrants in America, aimed at children as young as my grandsons (ages 9 and 10) but mainly geared for junior-high level. Until I read the book, I'd been ignorant of the fact -- as are most people -- that it wasn't only Japanese-Americans who were persecuted during WWII. Italian-Americans were also the objects of prejudice and discrimination. The book doesn't start with WWII though, but goes back to the 19th century to explore the political and economic struggles that resulted in the establishment of Italy as a modern, independent country. It was most interesting to me in its depiction of the hard life of the peasant and manual laborer that drove so many to uproot themselves and make the arduous trip to start new lives in America. This depiction is a compassionate one, in which the author weaves individual stories and interviews into her more general historical account, and further embellishes these accounts with rare vintage photographs of immigrant families. How different my grandsons' lives are from those of the young boys their age who had to spend their days underground as "go-fers" for their fathers and older brothers as they labored in the mines. The author also tells of the contributions made by Italian Americans that have enriched our national fabric -- not just such well known contributions as pizza, pasta and Frank Sinatra, but the accomplishments of individuals like Gugliemo Marconi, inventor of the radio, Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton, TV actress and film director Penny Marshall, and Vincent Palumbo, the late master carver at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.For all these reasons, I think the book would make a good supplement to the average history textbook, and it seemed to me that the depth of information might be useful to students well above the age range indicated by the publisher.I'm not Italian myself, but much of this volume reminded me of stories told by my own immigrant grandfather. And it's a reminder of how much we owe to immigrants of every country. If the rest of the series is up to Petrini's effort, it should be most worthwhile reading.