One can hardly be a fan of Communists. Look at what has happened in every country where they've seized control.
Yet, who can root for the Robber Barons of the early 1900s, and the early 2000s, who mercilessly exploited both the under and middle class, all in the name of incalculable mind numbing greed.
In my Idealist mind, I had to root for
the Radicals, the Anarchists, the Communists,
But hope that they would only be HALF
successful, so we could wind up halfway between the two extremes, at Moderation,
a balance between Freedom and Responsibility. A balance of Individual Rights
vs The Concerns of the Community.
I have long despaired of a continued slow
evolution toward greater humanitarianism.
I therefore choose to look at the early Radicals of this country, as Reformers, and The Italians Americans had a huge presence in the Movement, which has been largely ignored.
A new book, "The Lost World of Italian
American Radicalism" attempts to partially remedy that grievous oversight.
=========================================
Thanks to H-ITAM, Dominic Candeloro, Editor
THE LOST WORLD OF ITALIAN AMERICAN RADICALISM:
Politics, Labor, and Culture
Edited by Philip Cannistraro and Gerald
Meyer
Praeger Publishers. Westport, Conn. 2003.
360 pages
ISBN 0-275-97892-3,
$29.95 (Paperback) $79.95 (Hard Back)
Radicalism had a powerful but largely unacknowledged
influence in the Italian-American community. This study brings together
16 selections that restore to Italian-American history the radical experience
that has long remained suppressed, but that nevertheless helped shape both
the Italian-American community and the American left. The detailed introduction
by the volume editors interprets the overall history of
Italian-American radicalism and offers
extensive bibliographical references on the topic, which the volume editors
organize into three sections: labor, politics, and culture. A concluding
selection relates the radicalism of Italian Americans to that in other
Italian immigrant communities.
In the section on labor, Rudolph Vecoli,
among others, traces the rise and decline of radicalism within the Italian-American
working class,and Jennifer Guglielmo breaks new ground in uncovering the
involvement of Italian American women in the radical movements. In politics,
Paul Avrich unveils the violent reaction of anarchists in the United States
to the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, and Jackie DiSalvo identifies
Father James Groppi as the most important
white leader in the Civil Rights movement. On culture, Julia Lisella, Mary
Jo Bono, and Edvige Guinta present pioneering interpretive studies on the
work of Italian-American women in literature.
This collection apparently sprung from the 1st Annual JDCIAI International Conference in May 1997 of the same name.
To purchase go to:
Amazon.com:
Books: The Lost World of Italian-American Radicalism
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0275978923/qid=1074666119/sr=12-1/104-6709671-0603925?v=glance&s=books
OR
Greenwood
Publishing Group I1
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-6709671-0603925
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-- Acknowledgments
-- Introduction:
Italian American Radicalism: An Interpretive History
by Philip V. Cannistraro
and Gerald Meyer
1. LABOR
-- The Making and
Un-Making of an Italian Working Class in the United States,
1915-1945, by Rudolf
J. Vecoli
-- War Among the
Anarchists: The Galleanisti's Campaign Against Carlo Tresca by Nunzio Pernicone
-- Italian Workers
on the Waterfront: The New York Harbor Strikes of 1907 and 1919 by Calvin
Winslow
-- Donne Ribelli:
Recovering the History of Italian Women's Radicalism in the US by Jennifer
Guglielmo
-- The Case of the
Italian Locals of the ILGWU: From Working Class Radicalism to Cold-War
Anti-Communism: by Charles Zappia
2. POLITICS
-- Sacco and Vanzetti's
Revenge by Paul Avrich
-- No God, No Master:
Italian Anarchists and the Individual Workers of the World by Salvatore
Salerno
-- Italian Radicals
and Union Activists in San Francisco, 1900-1920, by
Paola A. Sensi-Isolani
-- Italian Americans
and the American Communist Party by Gerald Meyer
-- Father James
Groppi: The Militant Humility of a Civil Rights Activist
by Jackie Di Salvo
-- Mario Savio:
Resurrecting an Italian American Radical by Gil Fagiani
3. CULTURE
-- The Radical World
of Ybor City, Florida by Gary R. Mormino
-- Recovering Radical
Traditions of Italian American Writers: Follow the Red Brick Road
by Fred Gardaphe
-- Behind the Mask:
Signs Radicalism in the Work of Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni
by Julia Lisella
-- Rooted to Family:
Italian American Women's Radical Novels by Mary Jo Bana
-- Where They Come
From: Italian American Women Writers as Public
Intellectuals by
Edvige Giunta
-- Conclusion: Italian
American Radicalism in Global Perspective by
Donna R. Gabaccia
"From the thorough
and incisive introduction by its editors, who provide nothing less than
an indispensable contribution for anyone seeking to understand the Italian-American
experience, this collection represents a long overdue correction of a great
omission--the lost world of Italian American radicalism--that invaluably
expands and enriches the field of Italian-American studies."
Richard N. Juliani
Professor of Sociology, Villanova University
"....Fills a void
in the study of Italian-American history and culture by offering its reader
a series of analytical and interpretive essays on radical Italian America.
No one has yet to offer such a wide-spread panorama that has at its base
the knowledge, intellectual expertise, and critical acumen of the who's
who of Italian-American studies that this collection offers, a representative
list of more than three generations of scholars working in the field....A
required book for anyone's
library, even those
remotely interested in the subject."
Anthony Tamburri
Professor of Italian, Florida Atlantic University
** Editors**
PHILIP CANNISTRARO
is Distinguished Professor of Italian American
Studies at Queens
College and the Graduate School, City University of
New York.
GERALD MEYER is Professor
Emeritus of History at Hostos Community
College, City University
of New York, and author of Vito Marcantonio:
Radical Politician,
1902-1954.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ITALIAN AMERICAN
RADICALISM: Old World Origins and New World Developments. Ed. Rudolph J.
Vecoli (1972) pp. 80.
AMERICAN ITALIAN
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION