Mr. Italo Savella  (of the Philadelphia , PA area) has relayed to me a Message Prof. Lawton, Editor of H-ITAM sent him, which I have excerpted below.

Prof. Lawton expressed my Identical thoughts, although as usual, he does it much better.

I personally was exasperated by Mr. Savella's disingenuous debative/argumentative techniques, that overwhelming counterbalanced any possible value of his knowledge.

BUT, I was EXTREMELY OFFENDED by Mr. Savella's constant and unabated INAPPROPRIATE Italian/ Italian American "Bashing"!!!!

It will be a relief,..... not to be subjected any further to Mr. Savella's  "Negativity".

Mr. Savella is Much worse than Bill Tonelli, if you can imagine that. :) :(

I expect Mr. Savella to embark on a campaign to be reinstated.
I hope you will send a  very brief Email to Ben Lawton expressing your support for Prof Lawton's  expelling Mr. Savella from the H-ITAM List .

I would personally appreciate it.

Regards to All,
Richard Annotico

Dr. Savella,

...Even though I so stated in my last message, you don't seem to want to
understand that this is not the locus for private conversations. If you
have been paying attention, you may have noticed that several other
people have discussed Mr. Verso review from various perspectives. And
they have been discussing the responses. All amicably.

....(You go to great lengths) ... to continue your denigration of everything Italian. And yes, I do take offense, whether anyone else does, or not.

But more than that, I take offense at the way you make your arguments.
While you are well-armed with information, you twist facts to suit your
theses, you don't answer the questions asked, you boldly knock down the
straw men you have erected, you cavil, you prevaricate, and, amarus in
fundu, you have been rude, from the first message you sent to H-ITAM to
this last one.

....Given that it is clear that you have nothing positive to add to this list and that you refuse to abide by the policies of H-ITAM, I am as of this moment banishing you from this list....

       Addio.

 
Ben Lawton
Editor, H-ITAM
Purdue University