Italian History

The Italian Squad: Immigrant Cops Who Fought The Rising Mafia

April 3, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The story begins in Sicily, on Friday, March 12th, 1909, at 8:45 pm. Three gunshots thundered in the night, and then a fourth. Two men fled, and investigators soon discovered who they had killed: Giuseppe Petrosino, the legendary American detective whose exploits in New York were celebrated even in Italy.

The book The Italian Squad: The True Story of the Immigrant Cops Who Fought the Rise of the Mafia (NYU Press, 2023) by veteran New York City journalist and historian Paul Moses explores the lives of the nationally celebrated detectives who followed in the slain Petrosino’s footsteps as leaders of the New York City investigative squad: Anthony Vachris, Charles Corrao, and Michael Fiaschetti. [Read more…] about The Italian Squad: Immigrant Cops Who Fought The Rising Mafia

Cremona to Central Park: Stradivari & Nahan Franko’s Legacy

March 28, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Musician Nicola Matteis arrived in London in the early 1670s. Describing himself as “Napolitano,” he was the first Baroque violinist of note active in the capital. Very much his own promoter, he published his Arie diverse per il violin in 1676, a collection of 120 pieces for solo violin. A second extended edition with an English title-page appeared two years later. In 1685, he published the third and fourth parts of the famous Ayres for the Violin.

Matteis is credited with changing English taste for violin from the French to the Italian style of playing. Soon after, attention shifted from performer to instrument which sparked a veritable cult of Cremonese violins. The name Stradivari became a metaphor for perfection attained by a combination of individual genius, skill and attention to detail. [Read more…] about Cremona to Central Park: Stradivari & Nahan Franko’s Legacy

Weegee the Famous: Paparazzo of the Nameless

March 1, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

The term paparazzo and its plural form paparazzi were first used in English in a Time magazine article dated April 14th, 1961, entitled “Paparazzi on the Prowl.” The piece put the spotlight on a new type of photographer that was giving Rome’s elegant district around Via Veneto an unpleasant reputation. [Read more…] about Weegee the Famous: Paparazzo of the Nameless

Italian Heroes In New York: What Purpose Did Statues Serve?

December 14, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Nationalism of the nineteenth century represents very different values to those of our era. With the present rise of frenzied flag-waving and militant xenophobia, it is hard to understand the cult status achieved by foreign revolutionary figures such as Lafayette, who was honored as the “French Hero of the American Revolution.”

In 1878 a bust of Giuseppe Mazzini was unveiled in New York City‘s Central Park. A decade later, on the sixth anniversary of his death, Giuseppe Garibaldi was memorialized with a bronze statue in Washington Square Park. Why were these relatively unknown Italian insurgents given such a prestigious presence in New York? [Read more…] about Italian Heroes In New York: What Purpose Did Statues Serve?

One Immigrant Family’s Italian Roots

September 30, 2022 by Bob Cudmore 1 Comment

This week on The Historians Podcast, Giovanni Ruscitti of Colorado is author of the memoir Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks: A Son’s Discovery of His Italian Heritage. Ruscitti chronicles the history of his Italian immigrant family and a visit to his ancestral homeland of Cansano in Abruzzo. [Read more…] about One Immigrant Family’s Italian Roots

A World War Two Bomber’s Final Flight

August 31, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Residents of an alpine valley in Northern Italy still hail as heroes two American pilots of a crippled U.S. plane who crashed into the side of a mountain rather than release their bombs onto the villages below during a World War II mission.

Both pilots died, but they bought enough time for the five other crew members aboard their crippled B-25 Mitchell bomber to bail out. One of them, 1st Lt. Franklin Lloyd Darrell Jr., the bombardier-navigator, lived for a time during and after the war in Saratoga County, as did his parents. [Read more…] about A World War Two Bomber’s Final Flight

The 1903 Hudson River Spier Falls Dam Disaster

August 16, 2022 by Lawrence P. Gooley Leave a Comment

In the spring of 1903, more than a thousand men were at work on the final stages of the Spier Falls hydroelectric project on the Hudson River near Glens Falls.

A large number of skilled Italian masons and stoneworkers were housed in a shantytown on the Warren County (north) side of the river.

Most of the remaining work was on the Saratoga County (south) side, which they accessed by a temporary bridge. But the company feared that the high waters of springtime had made the bridge unsafe. To avert a potential catastrophe, they destroyed it with dynamite. [Read more…] about The 1903 Hudson River Spier Falls Dam Disaster

Islands of Punishment and Exclusion

August 9, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

The exclusion of “undesirables” to remote lands has a long history. The shameful attempts by contemporary governments to “solve” the refugee problem in that manner has had precedents.

During the mid-1930s Mussolini dumped socialists and anti-fascists in the inaccessible and malaria-ridden southern areas of the country.

The use of islands as off-shore detention centers has a parallel history. The government of Charles I locked up its opponents at Jersey, Guernsey, or the Isles of Scilly. Having lost the English Civil War, Charles I himself was incarcerated in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. Faced with continuing sedition and agitation, Charles II sent several former leaders of the Interregnum into island isolation. [Read more…] about Islands of Punishment and Exclusion

The Cult of Technology: Futurism in New York

July 5, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

In 1906 Milan hosted the World Exhibition which, significantly, focused on the theme of transportation. The occasion for the exhibition was the inauguration of the spectacular Simplon Tunnel, connecting Milan to Europe’s major cities.

The opening up of commercial and cultural connections unleashed a burst of buoyancy. Milan became associated with the ﬁrst aesthetic movement to praise the potential of the modern metropolis. [Read more…] about The Cult of Technology: Futurism in New York

Jazz, Mussolini and Italian Fascism

May 30, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

On February 4th, 2006, La Repubblica reported the funeral in Rome of Romano Mussolini. His death had been made public by former actress and politician Alessandro Mussolini, Romano’s daughter out of his first marriage to Maria Scicolone (the younger sister of Sophia Loren) on the website of her neo-Fascist party Alternativa Sociale.

The church service began with Gershwin’s “Summertime” and ended with “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Outside the church hundreds of mourners paid their respect with Fascist salutes.

Fascism, jazz and black gospel mentioned in the same context and a service that had started with a classic tune by a composer of Ukrainian-Jewish ancestry. What brought this contradictory intertwining about? [Read more…] about Jazz, Mussolini and Italian Fascism