Blood of my Blood – The Dilemma of the Italian Americans
by Richard Gambino
Better described as “Understanding our Italian Origins.” From Italy’s Mezzogiorno to the cities and suburbs of America, Richard Gambino traces the evolution of Italian-American psyche. Read about:
* The Family System
* Reasons for Leaving Italy
* Receptions in the New Land – Work, Bread and Fire
* The Ellis Island experience, Little Italy, Jobs, etc
* L’Uomo di Pazienza – the Ideal of Manliness
* La Serietà – The Ideal of Womanliness
* Religion, Magic, and the Church
* Childhood and Education
* Attitudes Toward Outsiders, Authority and Politics
* What It Means to Be Italian-American in the United States
In this engrossing, full-scale study, Gambino examines a uniquely Southern Italian value system, which survived intact for two thousand often perilous years, and examines the family as the only social reality; explaining its complex system of rules, stratifications, and roles for each member (father as head, mother as core ). Immensely readable – it offers us a practical blueprint for “creative ethnicity” in our struggle to withstand the fragmentation of American life. Since its publication in 1974, Blood of My Blood has become the most highly esteemed book on the subject. It is also rare in that it has been a popular bestseller and is widely used as a college text.