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I grew up in an environment where the Italian Immigrant were so grateful
for the opportunity the US offered, albeit under the most vile
circumstances, that they thought it would be ungrateful to question the
economic system of their new adopted land, robber barons and all, and I
unfortunately accepted their perspective.

There were however other Italian Immigrants who were not so constrained,
fortunately. Italy had a well formulated foundation of anarchy and
socialism, that appeared to "bust out", after the Unification, and the
ousting of the long time "occupiers".

Many Italians brought these "Ideals" with them when they Immigrated to the
US, and formulated the backbone of a Movement that tried to introduce
"equity" in a Capitalist Society, that while ostensibly Democratic, was
actually a facade for a well disguised oligarchy.

"Lost World.." reminds the Italian Community about its rich contribution to
the Reforms considered and
adopted in the US.

Roth's comment that a book on Italian American Radicalism should have been
more multicultural was monumentally stupid.He compounds that gaff by
determining that since Groppi and Savio were not active
in the Italian American Community that they shouldn't be included in this
book. That is as bizarre as claiming that because Einstein was not a
practicing Jew, that he should not be counted amongst Prominent Jews.

Philip Cannistraro and Gerald Meyer, eds. _The Lost World of
Italian-American Radicalism_. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2003. viii +
346 pp. Notes, index. $79.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-275-97891-5; $29.95 (paper),
ISBN 0-275-97892-3.

LOST BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

_The Lost World_ is a collection of essays which explores the history of
Italian-American radicalism from the early 1900s to the present.

Collectively the essays provide a broad survey of the major events, trends,
and individuals within the Italian immigrant community. It is a book full
of potential.

The strongest essays center around the socialist and anarchist movements of
the early 1900s and the appeal these found within communities of  Italian
immigrants, many of whom had come to the United States as
socialists.

 "The Radical World of Ybor City, Florida" (by Gary Mormino and George El
Pozzetta) provides a vivid account of an energetic and enthusiastic
left-wing community. Other essays on anarchism and the Industrial Workers
of the World (including that by Salvatore Salerno) and the influence of
Italian immigrants within the trade union movement (by Calvin Winslow and
Paola Sensi-Isolani) add to the sense of drama and promise which surrounded
the history of the old labor movement. Nunzio Pernicone's fascinating essay
about anarchist sectarianism describes the outright loathing which the
hardcore anarchist movement had for the anarcho-syndicalist Carlo Tresca,
perhaps the most influential Italian-American leftist and the radical
everyone--anarchists and fascists alike--loved to hate. Another essay (by
Jennifer Guglielmo) on the role of women within the anarchist community
fills out the picture in still another direction.

_The Lost World_ is also outstanding for raising important issues
concerning the history of Italian-American radicalism. For all the
militancy and wide-spread acceptance of radicals within the ethnic
community during the early decades of the 1900s, the rise of fascism in the
1920s proved to be irresistible and is described in a terrific essay by
Rudolph Vecoli. If Italian-American radicalism was eclipsed by the
popularity of fascism, the inability of twentieth-century communism to
continue the radical tradition was played out in the cold-war orientation
of unions like the International Ladies' Garment Worker's Union. See the
articles by Gerald Meyer and Charles Zappia.

Particularly for the earlier decades, _The Lost World_ champions a novel
approach for reconstructing the left's rather complicated history. Despite
many excellent accounts of those years, the ever-changing mix of
organizations, events, and ideologies has made it difficult to capture the
full breath and dynamism of a movement which burned its way rather
haphazardly through society--before declining precipitously.

How does one tell a coherent story about a movement which lacked coherence?
This is the methodological issue to which _The Lost World_ poses a
solution. For the editors, the initial step is to examine how the left
functioned within the relatively-closed linguistic and cultural environment
of Italian immigrants.

Were this to be combined with other similarly-structured accounts, we would
have a multicultural retelling of the history with profound implications
for our understanding of the ebbs and flows of the left in the United
States. Such an approach would be just as useful for accounts of the
working class, whose trajectory remains similarly befuddling because of the
vast diversity of experiences and allegiances.

If this is the promise of _The Lost World_, the individual essays do not
always live up to the standards set by the outstanding introductory essay
by Philip Cannistraro and Gerald Meyer, and the equally outstanding
concluding remarks by Donna Gabaccia. Much of the book fits together
uneasily, such that the ethnic aspect of the book seems to provide more
continuity than does the focus on radical politics. The editors themselves
set the stage for this by positing a direct lineage between the socialist
and anarchist activists of the early 1900s and Italian-American authors and
activists of the pre- and post-WWII eras (Fred Gardaphe, Mary Jo Bona,
Edvige Giunta).

 In the earlier period, the radicals found a broad acceptance in the
Italian immigrant community, whereas in the latter periods, the focus was
on individual Italian-Americans who sometimes had little connection to the
broader ethnic community except through their writings. This was true of
the author and poet Rosa Marinoni (as demonstrated in the article by Julia
Lisella), who was neither working class nor self-identified as a leftist,
even though proletarian and progressive themes appear frequently in her
writings. The otherwise fascinating accounts of Father Groppi (by Jackie
DiSalvo) and Mario Savio (by Gil Fagiani) strike a similar chord.

Father Groppi, who mobilized African-American youth in Milwaukee during the
civil rights movement and
then, after he married and was banished from the Roman Catholic Church,
worked as a bus driver and activist in the city's transportation union,
seems to have had no interest in or contact with the Italian-American
community. Mario Savio, known for his role in the Berkeley Free Speech
Movement of the mid-1960s, rediscovered his ethnicity a decade later, in
middle age, when the "roots" phenomena swept the United States. His
ethnicity was a recreated one. Both Father Groppi and Mario Savio were
Italian-Americans who were also radicals, but unlike Italian socialists and
anarchists of the early 1900s, the melding of ethnicity and radicalism was
not what identified their politics. Much the same could be said for every
essay in this collection which focuses on contemporary figures.

For the essays on the earlier part of the century, there is consequently a
tone of left-wing nostalgia which mitigates against the book's strengths
and interferes with the ability of the authors and editors to articulate a
theme which can unify the entire volume. There is much bemoaning of the
lack of attention to the history of Italian-American radicalism, but as
many of the essays attest, there has not been much radicalism from within
the Italian-American community since the 1920s. The delay in publication
has not helped the book's difficulties. The individual essays stem from a
1997 conference, but in the six years it took to publish the volume the
world has altered dramatically. No one addresses the obvious parallels
between Italian-anarchist emigration a century ago and the dispersed
communities of Arab- and Arab-American fundamentalists today; yet it would
be very useful to hear discussions on just how far these two phenomena can
be associated.

Besides the obvious differences in political ideology, how else can we
understand their dissimilarities? Was the fanatic and uncompromising
commitment of Sacco and Venzetti, so captivatingly described by Paul
Avrich, similar to today's suicide bombers? What about other
similarities--for instance, the fact that neither the hardcore anarchists
then nor the fundamentalists today created a comfortable place within their
movements for women because of their fierce commitment to violence and the
politics of masculinity which that implies?

All things considered, however, this volume is a welcomed contribution to
our understandings of ethnicity, identity, and left-wing politics.
 
 

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