The first published history of the Italian-American community in this area, Italian Americans of Greater Boston: A Proud Tradition traces the migration of Italians to America through the development of Italian communities in Greater Boston. Most of the images in this collection have never been viewed by the public. Entire chapters are devoted to the themes of Italian-American family life, commerce and labor, culture and education, religion and philanthropy, and politics and government, underscoring in each instance the special contributions Boston's secondlargest ethnic group has made to the history of the metropolitan area.

The first published history of the Italian-American community in this area, Italian Americans of Greater Boston: A Proud Tradition traces the migration of Italians to America through the development of Italian communities in Greater Boston. Most of the images in this collection have never been viewed by the public. Entire chapters are devoted to the themes of Italian-American family life, commerce and labor, culture and education, religion and philanthropy, and politics and government, underscoring in each instance the special contributions Boston's secondlargest ethnic group has made to the history of the metropolitan area.

In this lively and engaging history, Stephen Puleo tells the story of the Boston Italians from their earliest years, when a largely illiterate and impoverished people in a strange land recreated the bonds of village and region in the cramped quarters of the North End. Focusing on this first and crucial Italian enclave in Boston, Puleo describes the experience of Italian immigrants as they battled poverty, illiteracy, and prejudice; explains their transformation into Italian Americans during the Depression and World War II; and chronicles their rich history in Boston up to the present day.

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.

In this lively and engaging history, Stephen Puleo tells the story of the Boston Italians from their earliest years, when a largely illiterate and impoverished people in a strange land recreated the bonds of village and region in the cramped quarters of the North End: Sicilians lived next to Sicilians, Avellinesi among Avellinesi, and so on. Focusing on this first and crucial Italian enclave in Boston, Puleo describes the experience of Boston's Italian immigrants as they battled poverty, illiteracy, and prejudice (Italians were lynched more often than members of any other ethnic group except African Americans); explains their transformation into Italian Americans during the Depression and World War II; and chronicles their rich history in Boston up to the present day. He tells much of the story from the perspective of the Italian leaders who guided and fought for their people's progress, reacquainting readers with pivotal historical figures like James V. Donnaruma, founder of the key North End newspaper "La Gazetta" (now the English-language "Post Gazette"), and politician George A. Scigliano. The book's final section is devoted to interviews with today's influential Boston Italian Americans, including Thomas M. Menino, the city's first Italian American mayor. The story of the Boston Italians is among America's most important, vibrant, and colorful sagas, and necessary reading for anyone seeking to understand the heritage of this ethnic group.

Christy Award® winning author, Ann Marie Stewart delivers a powerful and heartfelt novel revealing five generations of secrets. In the search for healing and truth, a century of stories unravel from the stony cliffs of Ireland, to Boston, France, and Seattle. Irish immigrant Siobhan Kildea’s impetuous flight from a Boston lover in 1919 leads her to a new family in an unfamiliar Montana prison town. After a horrific tragedy impacts her children, her land, and her livelihood, Siobhan makes a heart wrenching decision – with consequences that ripple for decades to come. Mysteriously linked to Siobhan is Genevieve Marchard, a battlefront nurse in France who returns stateside to find the absence of a certain soldier is her greatest loss; Anna Hanson, a music teacher who tucks herself away in a small Washington town, assuming her secrets are safe; and Erin Ellis, who thinks she and her husband won the lottery when they adopted their daughter, Claire. These interconnected stories, spanning three continents and five generations, begin to unravel in 1981 when Claire Ellis sets out to find her biological mother. With puzzling suspense, unforgettable characters and uncanny insight, Out of the Water is an intoxicating novel of motherhood, secrets, and the profound ramifications our decisions have. Readers will be left wondering: ultimately, is it always better to know the truth?

Part historical fiction, part memoir, part philosophy of education, this book begins with a story about a womans immigration into the U.S. and how three of her generations struggled in the U.S. school system. The book ends with an analysis of why many students fail in school, and what we can do about it. Through story and analysis, this book offers a critique of the U.S. education systemin 3 parts. Part one imagines what the immigration experience was like in the past, and reads like historical fiction. Part two looks at the ensuing three generations in the present, and reads like a memoir. Part three gleans lessons from the story as a whole for what we can do better in the future. In the historical fiction part, a Sicilian woman named Rose emigrates to the U.S. at the turn of the twentieth century. Knowing no English and illiterate but armed with a moral intelligence, she struggles in this strange world of the free, rubs shoulders with some of the great thinkers of her day, and discusses the nature of education with them. Shes one of the many prosaic heroes history books and schools sometimes forget. In the memoir part, Roses son Henry, the authors father, drops out of school in the eighth grade to help his single mom by selling newspapershe never thought he was smart enough for school anyway. His son Henry Jr. goes all the way in school to obtain a PhD, but struggles to find a voice along the way. Henry Jr.s son Justin was seemingly born with an expressive voice, but in his shuffle to conform to the school system, almost lost it. In these 3 cases, we see 3 types of students who often fail in school in general. In the final analysis part, the book reflects on these prosaic cases to understand why so many U.S. students fail. The theme that emerges parallels the traditions of Rousseau, Dewey, and Montessori: students at heart are good and educators are most effective when they treat them as such; students learn best by doing, and this includes moral doing; and students become intrinsically motivated to learn if allowed to think critically, creatively, and to find their voices. If democracy depends on an informed citizenry, the questions this book raises about school failure are critical to the future of our nation . J.A.