New York, NY (1888PressRelease)
August 18, 2008 - This October, Pelican will release The Journey of the Italians in America by Vincenza Scarpaci worldwide in hardcover, priced at $35.00. Starting in October, author will be touring select U.S. cities through December to promote this photographic history of Italian-American life. Scarpaci will be conducting lectures, book talks, and autographing her book in New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Colorado.
Scarpaci’s book is the product of years of painstaking research into the history of the Italian experience in the United States.
Italians have influenced American life since the beginning of the new Republic. Thomas Jefferson adapted the classic Italian architecture of Andrea Palladio in designing his home and the University of Virginia; discussed agronomy and political philosophy with his neighbor, the Italian-trained physician and merchant Philip Mazzei; signed the Declaration of Independence along with William Paca of Maryland; and invited Italian musicians to form the first marine band in Washington D.C. Since then, millions of Italians have immigrated to the United States, bringing with them a distinct set of beliefs, traditions, and customs, which have been preserved and passed down through the generations.
Scarpaci takes a photographic approach towards unraveling the history and legacy of Italians and their presence in America. Examining more than four hundred unique photographs of Italian families, settlements, businesses, and celebrities, Scarpaci celebrates the ways in which this ethnic group has influenced many aspects of American life, including arts, agriculture, industry, religion, cuisine, sports, and politics. Beginning in the late 1870s, this work illustrates how the immigrants and their descendants faced the hardships, disappointments, achievements, and successes of this ongoing experience.
With photographs from settings as diverse as a canning factory in Salerno to an Italian family’s kitchen garden in Kellogg, Idaho, to Italians living in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, The Journey of the Italians in America traces the evolution of the Italian immigrant of the 1800s into today’s statesman, scholar, movie star, Supreme Court justice, or businessman. As much a history of Italian influence on America, this work is also a history of American influence on Italians, as Scarpaci makes plain through evaluating the differences among generations of Italian Americans. An enduring study of ethnicity in America, this chronicle is a timely contribution to the discourse on immigration in the United States and will certainly be appreciated and enjoyed by all Americans.
Brooklyn native Vincenza Scarpaci is a writer and teacher. She graduated from Hofstra University in New York in 1961 with a bachelor of arts degree in history and went on to obtain her Ph.D. in history from Rutgers University in 1972. She has worked as a consultant, grant writer, and volunteer coordinator in addition to her considerable teaching experience at the university level. Her work has been published in journals and encyclopedias across the globe. She resides in Eugene, Oregon.
For more information, to request a review copy of the book, to arrange for an interview or schedule an event with the author, or to purchase the book, please contact Katie Szadziewicz (publicist) at 504-368-1175, ext. 331 or kszadziewicz ( @ ) pelicanpub dot com or John Scheyd (sales representative) at 504-368-1175, ext dot 329 or jscheyd ( @ ) pelicanpub dot com dot
HISTORY / United States / General
320 pp. 8˝ x 11
113 color photos 385 b/w photos 2 maps Index
ISBN: 1-58980-245-4
ISBN-13: 9781589802452 $35.00
Contact: Katie Szadziewicz, Publicist, Pelican Publishing Company
kszadziewicz ( @ ) pelicanpub dot com or 504-368-1175, ext. 331
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