Buon Anno and Happy 2019 to all of our paisani out there!  This first episode of the New Year is the fourth and final part of our four-part Power Hour series on Italian American history.  John, Pat and Dolores reunite to reveal the books behind their knowledge of the Italian American experience.

We bet you can’t listen to this episode without adding at least one of these amazing works to your home library!

Tweetables:

• “Italians had an aversion to books because to read a book you have to go off in a corner in isolation and isolation is antithetical to the Italian American culture” – Patrick O’Boyle
• “We do edit our own story” – John M. Viola
• “No matter what our history around education and literature is, we certainly have a statistically well-educated community today” – John M. Viola
• “We are in this continuing journey of defining what makes us, us” –Patrick O’Boyle

Books/Resources:

• IAP 15: Gay Talese on growing up Italian American in Mid-20th Century America. Part 1 of 2
• IAP 16: Gay Talese on showing up as a journalist. Part 2 of 2
• IAP 38: Fred Gardaphé on the importance of educating Italian Americans
• IAP 45: The hidden history of Southern Italy’s glory – Part One
• IAP 46: The hidden history of Southern Italy’s glory – Part Two
• IAP 48: The hidden history of Southern Italy’s glory – Part Three
• The Normans in Sicily: The Normans in the South 1016-1130 and the Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194 by John Julius Norwich
• Papa, My Father: A Celebration of Dads by Leo Buscaglia
• The Neapolitan Novels Boxed Set by Elena Ferrante
• The Shoemaker’s Wife: A Novel by Adriana Trigiani
• Were You Always an Italian?: Ancestors and Other Icons of Italian America by Maria Laurino
• Blood of My Blood: The Dilemma of the Italian-Americans by Richard Gambino
• Vendetta: The True Story of the Largest Lynching in U.S. History by Richard Gambino
• Terroni: All That Has Been Done to Ensure that the Italians of The South Became “Southerners” by Pino Aprile
• The Bourbons of Naples (1734-1825) by Harold Acton
• The Last Bourbons of Naples by Harold Acton
• Between Salt Water and Holy Water: A History of Southern Italy by Tommaso Astarita
• Il Gattopardo by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
• The Kingdom of Sicily 1130-1860 by Louis Mendola
• The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796 by Christopher Duggan
• The Red Shirt and the Cross of Savoy: The Story of Italy’s Risorgimento, 1748-1871 by George Martin
• The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples by David Gilmour
• La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience by Jerre Mangione & Ben Morreale
• The Italian Americans: A History by Maria Laurino
• The Italians in America Before the Civil War by Giovanni Schiavo
• American Opinion on the Unification of Italy, 1846-1861 by Howard Rosario Marraro
• Diplomatic Relations Between the United States and the Kingdom of Two Sicilies: 1816-1850 by Howard Rosario Marraro
• The Madonna of 115^th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem by Robert A. Orsi
• The United States and Fascist Italy: The Rise of American Finance in Europe by Gian Giacomo Migone
• Mussolini and Fascism: The View from America by John Patrick Diggins
• Black Shirts in Little Italy: Italian Americans and Fascism 1921-1929 by Philip V. Cannistraro
• Mussolini by Dennis Mack Smith
• Mussolini by R. J. B. Bosworth
• The Humble and the Heroic: Wartime Italian Americans by Salvatore J. LaGumina
• Una Storia Segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment during World War II by Lawrence DiStasi
• WOP!: A Documentary History of Anti-Italian Discrimination by Salvatore J. LaGumina
• The Godfather Effect: Changing Hollywood, America, and Me by Tom Santopietro
• Colombo: The Unsolved Murder by Anthony Colombo and Don Capria
• The Italians by Luigi Barzini
• That Fine Italian Hand by Paul Hofmann
• From Caesar to the Mafia: Persons, Places and Problems in Italian Life by Luigi Barzini
• Good Italy, Bad Italy: Why Italy Must Conquer Its Demons to Face the Future by Bill Emmott
• The Dark Heart of Italy: An Incisive Portrait of Europe’s Most Beautiful, Most Disconcerting Country by Tobias Jones
• The Italians by John Hooper
• La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind by Beppe Severgnini
• The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson
• The New Neighborhood
• Risorgimento: The Red, White, and Greening of New York [1971] by Nicholas Pileggi