Review
"Bean's carefully-researched and engaging account highlights an overlooked dimension of Italian-American history: the experience in mid-sized cities. His volume on Utica offers a compelling study of the construction of a more unitary Italian self-perception among immigrants who initially failed to think of themselves as part of the same national minority. Bean's thought-provoking emphasis on the membership in the Democratic Party as a pivotal means of empowerment and a key expression of community identity will aptly dispel stereotypical interpretations of Italian Americans' amoral familism."- Stefano Luconi, University of Padua, Italy --Stefano Luconi, University of Padua, Italy
"A well-researched and accessible history of the advent and decline of the Italian immigrant settlement in Utica, New York. Bean thoroughly covers the rise of Italians in politics, the fall of labor unions, and the building of a community through immigrant fear, early citizenship, and loyal defense of democracy in times of war and peace. This information will be a welcomed addition to the field of Italian American radical history." Fred Gardaphe- Distinguished Professor of Italian American Studies, Queens College/CUNY --Fred Gardaphe- Distinguished Professor of Italian American Studies, Queens College/CUNY
A major contribution to the field of Italian American History as well as local history, ethnic and interethnic studies, urban history , and the evolution of conflicting forces of ethnic maintenance versus assimilation."-Frank J. Cavaioli, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Farmingdale State, SUNY, former President of the American Italian Historical Association. --Frank J. Cavaioli, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Farmingdale State, SUNY, former President of the American Italian Historical Association.
"Philip Bean has produced not only the definitive work on Italians in Utica, but a masterful piece of scholarship that anyone interested in the history of Italian immigration to America should read. By concentrating on the experience in a smaller city, The Urban Colonists sheds light on an aspect of the immigrant experience that is often overlooked. Through fine detail the story of Utica's Italian-American community shines through, and with it the similarities and differences between the story of immigrants in large cities and those living in smaller communities. A must read for all students of upstate New York." - Alexander R. Thomas, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology, SUNY College at Oneonta --Alexander R. Thomas, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology, SUNY College at Oneonta
"Philip A. Bean's The Urban Colonists: Italian American Identity and Politics in Utica, New York is more than the story of Italian Americans in a town in upstate New York. It accomplishes what virtually every other "case study" on Italian Americans and politics has failed to do. By telling the story of Italian Americans in Utica, it tells the wider story of Italian Americans as a major ethnic group in the United States, thus providing a significant contribution to the history of the country as a whole." --Italian American Review Journal
Book Description
A richly detailed history of Italian Americans in Utica, New York.
About the Author
Philip A. Bean has earned degrees from Union College, Oxford University, and the University of Rochester and has published articles on immigration and New York State political history in a number of scholarly journals. He currently serves as Associate Dean at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania. --linkedin.com/pub/philip-bean/6/735/406
