A vividly human presentation of the Italian migration to America. Real people appear here, with ordeals and hopes, successes and failures, in all of the circumstances envisioned by the marriage vows. Unions, churches, the rackets, the press, even ideals and ideologies come into focus on this meticulously comprehensive canvas.''--The New Republic ''Yans-McLaughlin has demonstrated effectively that Buffalo's Italian families did not disintegrate or experience major transforamatios under the pressure of immigration and life in a radically different environment. . . . points the way for further significant study of immigrant families.''-John Briggs, International Migration Review ''Methodologically speaking, Yans-McLaughlin's most important conclusion is that quantification is not enough. Statistics, she insists, can give us only the form of group structures; they do not assist the historian in penetrating to the cultural content of those structures. . . . Her book's great strength is its intelligent and painstaking analysis of the key institution of the family among Italian immigrants.''--New York Historical Society Quarterly.

Drawn from scores of family albums, these intimate snapshots tell the story of the unique and universal saga of Italian immigration and life in Chicago. More than 25,000 Italian immigrants came to Chicago after 1945. The story of their exodus and reestablishment in Chicago touches on war torn Italy, the renewal of family and paesani connections, the bureaucratic challenges of the restrictive quota system, the energy and spirit of the new immigrants, and the opportunities and frustrations in American society.