Reviewed by: Carteggio Scalabrini e Zaboglio (1886–1904) ed. by Veronica De Santis and Giovanni Terragni Mateo Binasco Carteggio Scalabrini e Zaboglio (1886–1904). Edited by Veronica De Santis and Giovanni Terragni. (Rome: Istituto Storico Scalabriniano. 2021. Pp. 416. ISBN: 9788885438279.) The years Veronica De Santis and Giovanni Terragni's edition of the correspondence exchanged between the Scalabrinian missionary Francesco Zaboglio (1852–1911) and Monsignor Giovanni Battista Scalabrini (1839–1905) represents a welcome and useful research tool for understanding one of the most dramatic phases of Italian emigration to North America. This edition consists of 160 letters spanning the years from 1886 to 1904, to which it is added an appendix of articles written by Zaboglio, upon Scalabrini's solicitation, on the Italian emigrants in America. The last part of the book provides a very detailed list of the missions managed by Italian Catholic missionaries in the United States in 1899. The book has many merits. First, it sheds light on a period of crucial changes for Italian emigration to North America, also showing how the Catholic Church responded to it. [End Page 419] Secondly, it offers a first-hand account of the difficulties and perils faced by the Italian missionaries vis-à-vis their fellow countrymen and the other migrant communities as well as the American authorities. The importance of the correspondence between Zaboglio and Scalabrini becomes more and more evident as one goes through the letters. Indeed, from the beginning, Zaboglio offers a vivid portrait of the Italian emigration and its consequences both on the Italian society and on the American society. Zaboglio's gloomy but detailed descriptions funnelled a flow of constant information to Scalabrini, and more broadly to the Holy See, which was used to develop a missionary strategy. Clearly, Zaboglio was not a mere observer. He put forward concrete missionary plans, such as—to name the most relevant one—the project to establish an institute for the training of the priests who were to operate among the Italian emigrants. A further crucial aspect, which comes out from Zaboglio's letters, is his "transnational" outlook. Very soon he realized that the development of any missionary plans could not be limited to the Italian community but had to encompass all migrants. From the very first letter to last one, the correspondence between Zaboglio and Scalabrini demonstrates the harsh aspects of the Italian emigration and the persistent difficulty to elaborate and implement effective plans geared toward the complex economic and social situation in the Americas. This edited collection is enriched by a very well written introduction authored by Matteo Sanfilippo and Giovanni Terragni, two leading experts on the history of migrations and of the Scalabrinians. They effectively reconstruct the multifaceted world of Scalabrini and Zaboglio and their web of institutional and private networks in the Americas and Italy. The fact that the book can be downloaded for free as a PDF file from the website of the Centro Studi Emigrazione di Roma is a further merit to be ascribed to the editors, who deserve to be praised for their scholarship which so much improves our knowledge of the Scalabrinian order and more broadly of the Italian emigration to the Americas. Mateo Binasco Universitá degli Stranieri di Siena Mateo Binasco Universitá degli Stranieri di Siena Copyright © 2023 The Catholic University of America Press