Futher Reading

There is a wealth of English-language books on the history of Italy. Among the best are Christopher Duggan, A Concise History of Italy (Cambridge, U.K., 1994), which provides an overview from ancient times to the present; Spencer M. Di Scala, Italy: From Revolution to Republic, 1700 to the Present (Boulder, Colo., 1995), which incorporates much new scholarship; and Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988 (London, 1990), a valuable source for understanding the recent post-war era. Moreover, a seven-volume history of Italy has been published by Longman which begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends with modern times; the most relevant volume for the background on emigration is Martin Clark, Modern Italy: 1871–1982 (London, 1984).

Italian emigration as a whole is competently dealt with in a series of studies edited by Gianfausto Rosoli, Un secolo di emigrazione italiana: 1876–1976, published in 1978 by the Centro Studi Emigrazione in Rome. Unfortunately, no counterpart exists in English, and the best global account, while limited to the era of mass migration, remains Robert F. Foerster’s epic, The Italian Emigration of Our Times (Cambridge, Mass., 1924; repr. New York, 1969). Recent individual studies are brought together in The Italian Diaspora: Migration across the Globe , edited by George E. Pozzetta and Bruno Ramirez (Toronto, 1992).

The Italian-Canadian ethnic group is fortunate in that over the last twenty-five years a considerable scholarship has developed documenting its presence in North America. With respect to bibliographical material, pioneer work has been done by Andrew Gregorovich, whose Canadian Ethnic Groups Bibliography: A Selected Bibliography of Ethno-Cultural Groups in Canada and the Province of Ontario (Toronto, 1972), included several references to the Italians. More recently, a supplement to this reference work has been compiled by the same scholar and edited by Gabriele Scardellato: A Bibliography of Canada’s People: Supplement 1, 1972–1979 (Toronto, 1993). A related companion volume includes an extensive section on Italians: Renée Rogers and Gabriele Scardellato: A Bibliography of Canada’s People 1980–1989: Part 2, Group Entries (Toronto, forthcoming), 396–415. Another valuable generic source is the collection of essays surveying research in ethnic studies with extensive reference to Italians: J.W. Berry and J.A. Laponce, eds., Ethnic Groups and Culture in Canada: The Research Landscape (Toronto, 1994). Specific consideration of Italian-Canadian literature is presented by Joseph Pivato, Italian-Canadian Writers: A Preliminary Survey (Ottawa, 1988). To date, the most complete bibliographic resource specifically on Italians in Canada remains Franc. Sturino, comp., Italian-Canadian Studies: A Select Bibliography (Toronto, 1988).

Any discussion of the writing of the Italians in Canada must begin with two early attempts to provide, almost ex nihilo, a history of the group. The first was by Guglielmo Vangelisti, parish priest at Madonna della Difesa in Montreal during the early post–World War II decades. His Gli Italiani in Canada (Firenza, Italy, 1956 (repr. 1958) was published under Church auspices. The first part dealt with early Italian contact during colonial times and provided an overview of the immigrant community through the modern period; the second part offered a detailed history of Vangelisti’s parish in Montreal. The other early, important, source is the encyclopedic, though sometimes unreliable, study by Antonino V. Spada, who founded Montreal’s weekly, Il Cittadino Canadese, in 1941. His The Italians in Canada (Montreal, 1969) was also divided into two parts: the first dealt with major figures and institutions from the colonial period to the present, the second provided a history of Italians in the major regions of Canada.

Fundamental in the scholarship on Italian-Canadians are the studies by Robert F. Harney, a professor of Italian history at the University of Toronto, who in the early 1970s turned his attention to the Italian diaspora. Over the course of two decades, Harney produced a steady stream of articles on subjects ranging from the commerce of migration to community formation and which laid the foundation for academic discussion in Italian-Canadian studies. Major papers by Harney appear in Dalla frontiera alle Little Italies: Gli Italiani in Canada, 1880– 1945 (Rome, 1984). Two other collections were published posthumously: If One Were to Write a History ... Selected Writings by Robert F. Harney (Toronto, 1991); and From the Shores of Hardship: Italians in Canada (Welland, Ont., 1993).

For Canada as a whole, Roberto Perin and Franc. Sturino of York University have edited several essays by major scholars under the title, Arrangiarsi: The Italian Immigration Experience in Canada (Montreal, 1992). A more popularly written study is Kenneth Bagnell, Canadese: A Portrait of the Italian Canadians (Toronto, 1989). An original book based on Vatican archives was written about the same time by Perin in which he examined the relationship between the Catholic Church and Canadian issues, including immigration: Rome in Canada: The Vatican and Canadian Affairs in the Late Victorian Age (Toronto, 1990). Since 1985 an annual journal devoted to Italian-Canadian studies has appeared dealing with a wide range of topics, both historical and contemporary: Italian Canadiana is housed at the University of Toronto and has become indispensable to the field.

For the pivotal community in Quebec, the research of Bruno Ramirez at the University of Montreal is invaluable. Les premiers italiens de Montréal: l’origine de la Petite Italie du Québec (Montreal, 1984) is a short, earlier version of a book written with Michael Del Balso, The Italians of Montreal: From Sojourning to Settlement, 1900–1921 (Montreal, 1980). Ramirez also produced one of the few comparative studies of Italian immigration, On the Move: French-Canadian and Italian Migrants in the North Atlantic Economy, 1860–1914 (Toronto, 1991). Related to this, two monographic studies have appeared in the Études italiennes series of the University of Montreal. An excellent analysis of the southern regional origins of the community is Sylvie Tashereau, Pays et patries: mariages et lieux d’origine des Italians de Montréal 1906–1930 (Montreal, 1987). An interesting counterpoint focusing on immigrants from northern Italy is Mauro Peressini, Migration, famille et communauté: les Italians du Frioul à Montréal (1990).

For Toronto, John E. Zucchi of McGill University provides a valuable analysis of the evolution of the Italian community prior to World War II: Italians in Toronto: Development of a National Identity, 1875–1935 (Montreal, 1988). Franca Iacovetta published a complementary study on the post-war era which incorporated the major themes of class and women: Such Hardworking People: Italian Immigrants in Postwar Toronto (Montreal, 1992). The process by which southern peasants came to settle in Toronto is dealt with by Franc Sturino in Forging the Chain: A Case Study of Italian Migration to North America, 1880–1930 (Toronto, 1990). For Ontario generally, Sturino and Zucchi edited the issue “Italians in Ontario,” of Polyphony, the journal of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario (vol.7, no.2, 1985), which provides several short pieces on the group’s history and community life. A collection of conference papers valuable for its focus on northern Ontario was edited by John Potestio and Antonio Pucci: The Italian Immigrant Experience (Thunder Bay, Ont., 1988).

Recently the vast spectrum of cultural activity in major Italian communities has been explored in Julius Molinaro and Maddalena Kuitunen, eds., The Luminous Mosaic: Italian Cultural Organizations in Ontario (Welland, Ont., 1993). More specifically, the same scholars have examined the field of Italian studies in two bilingual works: From Caboto to Multiculturalism: A Survey on the Development of Italians in Canada, 1497–1997 (Welland Ont., 1997), and A History of Italian Studies at the Univerity of Toronto, 1840–1990 (Toronto, 1991). A recent study that makes a significant contribution to our knowledge of a key organization is Gabriele P. Scardellato, Within Our Temple: A History of the Order Sons of Italy of Ontario (Toronto, 1995). A fine local history of Italian Canadians in Sarnia, Ontario, in both English and Italian, has been compiled by Caroline Di Cocco, Claudio Holzer, Nella D’Agostini, and Antonia Ambrose, One by One ... Passo dopo Passo: History of the Italian Community in Sarnia-Lambton, 1870–1990 (Sarnia, Ont., 1991).

Major studies of Italian-Canadians outside central Canada are few. For the west, Stanislao Carbone has produced a slim volume, The Streets Were Not Paved with Gold: A Social History of Italians in Winnipeg (Winnipeg, 1993). A view from within the important post-war community of Vancouver, but also covering the rest of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, is provided by the former Italian consul for western Canada (and published bilingually): Giovanni Germano, The Italians of Western Canada: How a Community Centre is Born (Florence, Italy 1978). For the east, Esperanza Maria Razzolini produced a brief, but fascinating, local history, All Our Fathers: The North Italian Colony in Industrial Cape Breton (Halifax, 1983).

Two accounts in the form of life histories provide insight into the pioneer phase of immigration in the Canadian hinterland. The Memoirs of Giovanni Veltri, edited by John Potestio (Toronto, 1987), presents the story of a railroad contractor and his Italian navvies from the late nineteenth century to World War I as they made their way throughout the Canadian west and north. Covering essentially the same period is an intriguing account of Italian homesteading in British Columbia: Victor Casorso, The Casorso Story: A Century of Social History in the Okanagan Valley (Okanagan Falls, B.C., 1983).

Of late, there has been renewed interest on the topic of Italians during the interwar years and World War II. The major contribution dealing with Italian-Canadians during the fascist era has been made by Luigi Bruti Liberati, Il Canada, l’Italia e il fascismo, 1919–1945 (Rome, 1984). The same theme and Canada-Italy relations more generally during both world wars are addressed in a collection of essays edited by Liberati: Il Canada e la guerra dei trent’anni: L’esperienza bellica di un popolo multietnico (Milan, 1989). An autobiographically-based account of internment life during World War II by Montreal writer Mario Duliani was released in 1945: La ville sans femmes (Montreal) and appeared in an Italian version the following year (Montreal). More recently, Toronto writer Antonino Mazza brought forth an evocative English translation, The City without Women: A Chronicle of the Internment Life in Canada during World War II (Oakville, Ont., 1994). With reference to the rich field of Italian-Canadian literature the best discussion is provided in a collection edited by Joseph Pivato, Contrasts: Comparative Essays on Italian-Canadian Writing (Montreal, 1985). The same author also deals with Italian-Canadian writing in Echo: Essays on Other Literatures (Toronto, 1994).

Along with historians and students of Italian studies, social scientists have made a valuable contribution to the corpus of scholarly writing on Italian Canadians. Most of this research, however, has been within the context of ethnicity in general terms or of Italians as part of a multi-ethnic project. Among the few studies that have concentrated on the Italians per se, two deal with Quebec. As part of its research on the third force, the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism commissioned a specific study on Italians. This resulted in anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain’s valuable monograph, The Italians in Montreal: Social Adjustment in a Plural Society (Ottawa, 1970), dealing with the post-war community. More recently, Claude Painchaud and Richard Poulin of the University of Ottawa produced an historical-socio-logical study which added much new information on the Montreal Italians: Les Italiens au Québec (Hull, Que., 1988).

Most active has been sociologist Clifford J. Jansen of York University, who published the useful national profile Italians in a Multicultural Canada (Queenston, Ont., 1988). Jansen’s statistical compilations present an abundance of quantitative data on Italians. The first, based on the 1971 decennial census and the less exhaustive quinquennial census of 1976, was co-authored with Lee R. Cavera. The second, updated, version was based on the 1981 census: Clifford J. Jansen, Fact-book on Italians in Canada, 2nd ed. (Toronto, 1987). The Institute for Social Research at York University (formerly the Institute for Behavioural Research) over the years has sponsored a wealth of investigation in ethnic studies. Two relevant monographs are: Clifford J. Jansen, The Italians in Vancouver: A Case Study of Internal Differentiation of an Ethnic Group (Toronto, 1981); and James Louis Di Giacomo, They Live in the Moneta: An Overview of the History and Changes in Social Organization of Italians in Timmins, Ontario (Toronto, 1982). A superb comparative study of ethnic identity, residential and work patterns, and politics in Toronto during the 1970s, covering several groups but including extensive references to Italians, is Raymond Breton, Wsevolod W. Isajiw, Warren E. Kalbach, and Jeffrey G. Reitz, Ethnic Identity and Equality: Varieties of Experience in a Canadian City (Toronto, 1990).

Research on the Italians of Canada has relied heavily on local materials drawn from community, church, and municipal sources. Being widely dispersed, these are difficult to access. Fortunately, holdings under federal-government auspices offer a wealth of information and are often readily available on microfilm. The National Archives of Canada in Ottawa house indispensable collections dealing with immigration and settlement. Particularly relevant for the Italians are the records of the federal Immigration Branch (RG 76) and the Department of Labour (RG 27). Moreover, in the early 1970s, the National Archives established a National Ethnic Archive to collect material produced by ethno-cultural communities (including the Italian), such as personal papers, club records, and visual and audio sources. Related to this, the National Library of Canada contains an extensive collection of Italian-language newspapers and periodicals from the turn of the century to the present. Another major archival collection is that of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario, which contains a rich array of oral interviews, documents, and photographs of Italian-Canadians. This material is housed both at the society’s premises and the Archives of Ontario in Toronto. A useful publication to the holdings contained at the Society has been compiled by Nick Forte and edited by G. Scardellato,A Guide to the Collections of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario (Toronto, 1992).