During the thirty-four year period from 1898 to 1932, more than fifty thousand Italian immigrants arrived at the port of Providence. The majority of them settled on Federal Hill, the three-hundred-acre land mass that stands high above Rhode Island's capital city. This remarkable photographic history of Federal Hill features images of the community from the late 1800s to the mid-1960s, chronicling the arrival of immigrants from many countries over the years. Federal Hill is a rich community in many ways. Its hardworking and tenacious settlers started out with a deep and abiding faith in God. Their numerous accomplishments are evidenced today in the many thriving family-owned businesses and stunning architectural achievements so prevalent in the downtown area. Many people from around the state enter Federal Hill through the welcoming pine-cone arch for seasonal festivals or a night on the town. The vitality and hospitality of this historic area are truly cherished by many in the modern era.

"Nuances of culture are lost from an outside perspective. This one–sidedness perception brings confusion and can lead to stereotypes. As a “Country of immigrants’” it is crucial to break stereotypes born in America to understand the complexity and uniqueness of every immigrant's culture. As for stereotypes of Italian culture in America, these are always related to food. As an Italian American neighborhood with many layers of history, Federal Hill has experienced several transitions. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Fabre Line offered the only transatlantic route which brought a large number of Italian immigrants to New England. Providence was one of the most popular ports, and many immigrants settled in the area from 1900 onwards. The majority of these immigrants were escaping poverty, lack of access to education and food scarcity in Southern Italy. These new Italian Americans earned a livelihood by running restaurant businesses or working in the garment industries. After a hundred years, the Italian-American story can be read as a successful, difficult, mutual cultural assimilation: Italian immigrants adjusted to American culture, and American culture adjusted to Italian Americans. Some restaurants in historically Italian neighborhoods maintain a traditional appearance and menu that tell the story of their immigrant roots, though few Italian Americans remain. Federal Hill, in Providence, RI, is one such neighborhood with few remaining Italian Americans, but many Italian restaurants. This thesis will start from Federal Hill, taking food as a tool to tell the Italian immigrants’ stories and break lingering stereotypes. By creating a sensory experience through street installations centered in Depasquale Square, visitors are able to engage with the stories of those immigrants as they walk along the historic street. Some of their stories speak to larger historical moments; some of them are personal memories, which would relate to the restaurant business they owned. All of the existing Italian restaurants would be part of this exhibition. Visitors can navigate the 18 Italian restaurants by the graphic that runs through the exhibition. The reorganization of Depasquale Square would bring a new center garden and create more space for the visitors to walk through at the same time. An archive of Italian American cuisine will anchor around the garden, with videos of the chefs from different Italian restaurants in the neighborhood cooking dishes. Color, sound, smell, all these sensory experiences will lead the visitors to the most important part in this neighborhood – taste." - abstract.

The twentieth century can truly be said to have been America's century. As the nation reached the position of world leader, her towns and cities changed at an unprecedented pace. With the approach to the millennium, the topic of change is on everyone's mind--how our communities and lifestyles have changed over the past century, and how we can endeavor to preserve the past while facing the future in which the world seems to change ever faster.

Italian Americans made a significant contribution to Franklin D. Roosevelt's election to the White House in 1932 and to the victory of the Democratic Party in the four subsequent presidential contests. This volume offers a case study of their electoral behavior. Through a quantitative analysis of the Italian-American vote between 1916 and 1948, this study demonstrates that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the creation of a Democratic majority in the Little Italy of Providence foreran both Alfred Smith's 1928 candidacy for the presidency and the Depression of the 1930s. War II and underwent a revitalization in the postwar years. Political recognition and patronage were so central to Italian Americans' party choice that their support for the Democratic Party reached a climax when a member of the community, John Pastore, ran for governor on the Democratic ticket in the mid 1940s. Stefano Luconi teaches the History of North America at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Florence.

The entire Italian American experience—from America's earliest days through the present—is now available in a single volume. This wide-ranging work relates the entire saga of the Italian-American experience from immigration through assimilation to achievement. The book highlights the enormous contributions that Italian Americans—the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States—have made to the professions, politics, academy, arts, and popular culture of America. Going beyond familiar names and stories, it also captures the essence of everyday life for Italian Americans as they established communities and interacted with other ethnic groups. In this single volume, readers will be able to explore why Italians came to America, where they settled, and how their distinctive identity was formed. A diverse array of entries that highlight the breadth of this experience, as well as the multitude of ways in which Italian Americans have influenced U.S. history and culture, are presented in five thematic sections. Featured primary documents range from a 1493 letter from Christopher Columbus announcing his discovery to excerpts from President Barack Obama's 2011 speech to the National Italian American Foundation. Readers will come away from this book with a broader understanding of and greater appreciation for Italian Americans' contributions to the United States.

Rhode Island residents greeted the 1997 publication of a photographic history of their state with much enthusiasm. The first volume of Italian-Americans in Rhode Island chronicled the Italian-American community's rising significance in the state's development--in government, business, religion, and civic affairs. The author of that volume, Joseph Muratore, has worked again to produce a second book on Italian-Americans in Rhode Island that includes many new images. Italian-Americans in Rhode Island Volume II covers the history of the early Italian settlers, who quickly established themselves in the jewelry business, the manufacturing field, and construction business, thus creating thousands of jobs for the immigrants who followed. With their aggressive ingenuity, Italian-Americans developed, manufactured, and assembled machinery and equipment capable of mass production. In this book, the author captures in photographs the primitive plants and equipment used, the local businesses that the immigrants committed themselves to, and the results of the Italian-Americans' contributions to the economic development of Rhode Island.