Library::Articles & Reviews

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the maestro’s birth, music historian, Harvey Sachs, published “Toscanini: Musician of Conscience," his second biography on one of the greatest conductors of all time.

Lavishly praised throughout the English-speaking world and somewhat more controversial at home, Neapolitan author Elena Ferrante is a literary phenomenon whose identity is an enigma. Her name is a pseudonym, and the author has chosen to keep his/her identity an enigma. For whatever reason, Ferrante is never photographed, never interviewed in person, but solely and occasionally by email.

In "Isis vs Occidente", Italian sociologist Stefano De Santis focuses on various aspects of the universe of ISIS, from the origins to the key players, the foreign fighters and the role of mass media, the war on terrorism that the Western world is conducting and the risks of our civilization.

In "Built with Faith," Joseph Sciorra explains how Italian Americans have shaped New York's spiritual and cultural landscapes

Two writers recall the East Harlem of yesteryear and its radical Italian American Congressman

Through participation and excellence in American sports, Italian immigrants maintained ethnic identity and enabled it to change as they moved from Italians to Americans. In the process they fashioned new American identities while preserving older, useful aspects of Italianitá.

Historian Peter Vellon's new book documents how the Italian immigrant press "constructed" Italian Americans

In this book we have not only the realizations of the mythical American dream, but also the failures behind the successes, something that has been missing in traditional histories, especially of Italian America. Every now and then you meet someone from your past and as you recount shared memories you realize there was more to what happened than your perspective; that new knowledge will forever change the way you recall that past. This is what will happen to you when you read Barney Bruno’s collection of memoirs, A Tear and A Tear in My Heart.

At a time when Italy has transformed itself into a country of arrival, dealing with the issues of social misunderstanding and bigotry that accompany immigration, this anthology reminds Italians of their own citizens who left the country well over a century ago facing innumerable trials and tribulations in their new locales.

Edited by Massimo and dedicated to his wife and life-long professional parter Lella, this book is an inspiration to all women. “For years, the collaboration between female architects and designers and their partners has been under- appreciated” “Lella has been consistent throughout her career: she is unfailingly intelligent; rigorous, not arbitrary; timeless, not trendy. She is an inspiration.”

Vetere does what he knows best: he takes you into a world that’s familiar, but always in unfamiliar ways. This is the mark of a master. “A film-like tragicomedy that is part Dickens, part Poe, and part Mel Brooks, but a tale that ends up all Vetere. This is what good writers do; they learn from their predecessors, and then as they work on their craft and develop their skills, they move from imitation to innovation.”

All This Talk of Love: A Novel. Christopher Castellani takes the immigrant saga well beyond timeworn plots, showing us all that becoming American effects, but doesn’t erase, our being Italian. “We didn’t go to Italy to sight see. We went so that my mother could visit the family she’d given up to marry my father, who’d emigrated to America after World War II. We went so that my parents could introduce me to the “real” world—vivid, honest, and unspoiled— and so they could escape the harsh and colorless “new” world. We went because my mother missed her best friends, her six brothers and sisters, who were still relatively young and very much alive.”

Professor Robert Viscusi, author of the recently published monumental poem Ellis Island interviewed by his colleague and longtime friend Anthony Julian Tamburri.

A recent book on New York politics and the Italian-American ethnic factor was presented at Queens College on September 25 in a forum that included New York State Senators Tony Avella and Joseph Addabbo, two living examples of what the study attempts to investigate. A major finding of the book is that Italian-American candidates most move beyond simple strategies of ethnic identity and succeed only when they are able to appeal to broader segments of the areas they wish to represent.