Review: Italian Immigration in the American West, 1870–1940, by Kenneth Scambray

Abstract

Book Review| May 01 2023 Review: Italian Immigration in the American West, 1870–1940, by Kenneth Scambray Kenneth Scambray. Italian Immigration in the American West, 1870–1940. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2021. 368 pp. Illustrations. Paperback $45.00. William Issel William Issel WILLIAM ISSEL is professor of history emeritus at San Francisco State University. His recent publications include a chapter, “Deutsche Einwanderer in San Francisco,” in California Dreams: San Francisco—Ein Porträt (2019), and a thriller, Coit Tower (2022), that features an Italian American private investigator in World War II San Francisco. Issel is the winner of the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the American Catholic Historical Association for his book For Both Cross and Flag (2010), a study of a forgotten culture war in California between Italian American Catholics and Italian American Communists before and during World War II. From 1976 to 1979, while teaching in London, he traveled extensively in Italy and Sicily interviewing city planners, architects, and citizen activists for his lectures on the conservation and preservation of historic central city districts in Italy, France, the UK, and the USA. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar California History (2023) 100 (2): 109–111. https://doi.org/10.1525/ch.2023.100.2.109 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation William Issel; Review: Italian Immigration in the American West, 1870–1940, by Kenneth Scambray. California History 1 May 2023; 100 (2): 109–111. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/ch.2023.100.2.109 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentCalifornia History Search When Humbert W. Ziroli entered the mess hall for dinner on his first day at the Naval Academy, several fourth-year midshipmen surrounded him and pushed him up against the wall. “You’re our first Italian. Let’s hear you sing.” The nineteen-year-old Ziroli walked to the nearest table, swept aside several place settings, climbed atop the table, and belted out the “E lucevan le stelle” (“And the stars were shining”) aria from Puccini’s Tosca. “Nobody at Annapolis ever bothered me about being Italian again.” Asked to explain his audacious response years later, the highly decorated retired admiral credited his bravery to his family and his Worcester, Massachusetts, Italian community institutions.1 In Italian Immigration in the American West, Kenneth Scambray assembles a rich collection of personal and family stories of Italians who found themselves caught up in the quotidian contests over access to power, privilege, and prestige that flourished in... You do not currently have access to this content.