The Boston Italians: A Story of Pride, Perseverance, and Paesani, from the Years of the Great Immigration to the Present Day

by Stephen Puleo

In this lively and engaging history, Stephen Puleo tells the story of the Boston Italians from their earliest years, when a largely illiterate and impoverished people in a strange land recreated the bonds of village and region in the cramped quarters of the North End. Focusing on this first and crucial Italian enclave in Boston, Puleo describes the experience of Italian immigrants as they battled poverty, illiteracy, and prejudice; explains their transformation into Italian Americans during the Depression and World War II; and chronicles their rich history in Boston up to the present day.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, American History

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Stephen Puleo is an author, historian, teacher, public speaker, and communications professional. His eighth book, The Great Abolitionist: Charles Sumner and the Fight for a More Perfect Union, was published by St. Martin’s Press in April, 2024.

Follow Steve on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/stephenpuleo...) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/puleosteve/) or visit his website (https://www.stephenpuleo.com/) for current news and events.

Steve's previously published books are:
• Voyage of Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America’s First Humanitarian Mission (2020)
• American Treasures: The Secret Efforts to Save the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address (2016)
• The Caning: The Assault That Drove America to Civil War (2012)
• A City So Grand: The Rise of an American Metropolis, Boston 1850-1900 (2010)
• The Boston Italians: A Story of Pride, Perseverance and Paesani, from the Years of the Great Immigration to the Present Day (2007)
• Due to Enemy Action: The True World War II Story of the USS Eagle 56 (2005)
• Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 (2003)

All of Steve’s books have been Boston regional bestsellers and have received national recognition. His work has been reviewed favorably by the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, the Boston Globe, the New York Post, Parade magazine, The National Review, Forbes.com, C-SPAN, the Associated Press, the Portland Press Herald, the Providence Journal, the Hartford Courant, Kirkus Reviews, Barnes and Noble Review.com, Library Journal, Booklist, History.com, and Publishers Weekly. Numerous national media outlets have interviewed Steve, including NBC, the New York Times, Parade magazine, History.com, C-SPAN, the History Channel, the Associated Press, and regional and national radio and television outlets.

An experienced, dynamic, and in-demand speaker and presenter, Steve has made nearly 700 appearances before thousands of readers – including bookstore signings, keynote addresses, library presentations, historical societies, industry events, book clubs, and appearances at universities and public and private schools. His showcase appearances include: speaking events at both the National Archives and the National Constitution Center; as a keynote for the 150th Anniversary Celebration of the Massachusetts Superior Court; and as a participant with Italian-American and Jewish-American scholars on a panel entitled, Italy and the Holocaust, presented at UMass-Boston. If you would like more information about having Steve appear at your event, please contact him at spuleo@aol.com.

A former award-winning newspaper reporter and contributor of articles and book reviews to publications and organizations that include American History magazine, Politico, the Boston Globe, and the Bill of Rights Institute, Steve has also taught history at Suffolk University in Boston and at UMass-Boston. He has developed and taught numerous writing workshops for high school and college students, as well as for adults who aspire to be writers. His books have been woven into the curricula of numerous high schools and colleges, and more than 30 communities have selected his books as “community-wide reads.” Steve also conducts book-club tours of Boston’s North End, one of the nation’s most historic neighborhoods.

Steve holds a master’s degree in history from UMass-Boston, where he received the Dean’s Award for Academic Achievement and was the Graduate Convocation keynote speaker. His master’s thesis, From Italy to Boston’s North End: Italian Immigration and Settlement, 1890-1910, has been downloaded nearly 30,000 times by scholars and readers around the world.

Steve and his wife Kate live south of Boston and donate a portion of his book proceeds to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

Reviews

[Donnamarie Mazzola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having reveled in the carefully researched history, drama and local color of Puleo’s account of the Great Molasses Flood in Boston, I was eager to read more about the neighborhood so familiar to my childhood trips to the city and the rich history of its inhabitants. Though not as suspenseful as Dark Tide, the book describes the Italian immigrant experience in Boston and provided a historical context for my own family history. For anyone sharing this heritage and Boston roots, it’s an interesting and engaging step back to the not too distant past.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, relatively slow-paced and filled with excellent research. Sadly, the proud final chapter about Sal DiMasi and Bob Travaglini have been sullied by their subsequent charges of wrongdoing, just the point that Puleo was trying to contradict. But at least Tom Menino has not gone down in flames, and there are many wonderful portraits of noble Italians. I am psyched for our Bocce Bel Canto End Term!

[Sue King · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A great history of la famigla italiana in Boston and the New World.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Boston Italians by Stephen Pulio

It's a pleasure to recommend this intensely researched book on the history of Italians in Boston, Massachusetts. Though the book focuses on Boston, the trends, prejudices, failures, and accomplishments represent the Italian experience in all our great cities and indeed some smaller towns as well. No matter how knowledgeable you are regarding Italian American history, I guarantee you will learn something from this book. The details in the form of quotations, excerpts from letters, and personal interviews constitute an impressive literary accomplishment.

Mr. Pulio’s family has its American roots in Boston, thus his interest. Personal family experiences are sprinkled in various chapters rendering the book mildly autobiographical. Central to the narrative is the famous Italian American newspaper La Gazzetta . now published in English as Post Gazette and still operated by the original Donnaruma family descendants. They have been a force in politics by serving as the voice of the Italian immigrant community. Through Mr. Pulia’s telling we learn details of the Italian American experience we all have heard something about: the exodus from Italy after the unification, the reluctance of Italians to become citizens during the early immigration period, involvement in anarchism, details of Sacco and Vanzetti, fascism, the Red Scare, lynching of Italians, and, of course, crime syndicates. We also learn details about political profiling and prejudice (I was shocked to read President Nixon’s comments on Italian Americans). The author relates a wealth of information about Italians in WWI, and internment and labelling of Italians as Enemy Aliens during WWII (those who had not yet applied for citizenship).
Mr. Pulio enters into the modern era with stories of illustrious Italian Americans in many fields of endeavor. The author interestingly delves into the love/hate relationship Italian Americans have with the mafia. While we all dislike that our ethnicity is continually stereotyped as criminal, who among us has not enjoyed The Godfather movies and De Niro’s many gangster rolls. It’s definitely a contradiction. You will be surprised as I was that Robert De Niro was offered honorary Italian citizenship, but the U.S. National Sons of Italy protested it on the grounds that DeNiro “profited from negative stereotypes of Italians for years” making him an Italian American “Uncle Tom.” Ultimately DeNiro declined the offer.
Mr. Pulio’s talented, experienced writing ability presents all this information and more in very readable and enjoyable text. The Boston Italians is beautifully written, thoroughly researched (there are 18 pages of bibliography!), educational and entertaining. Enjoy!

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written by a local Boston author whose grandparents came here from Italy and settled I the North End, Boston's traditional Italian neighborhood. He tells the story of the struggles of the early immigrants - who got caught in the anti-immigrant hysteria of the early 1900's that restricted immigration to those who could pay a head tax and who could pass a literacy test. During those years, Italian immigration nearly stopped.

Even then, this population took their time becoming Americanized, being slow to seek citizenship and staying within their ethnic communities and not learning English. Like immigrant groups before them, the Italians did menial pick and shovel work or whatever they could find to support their families initially. They are still dealing with the stereotypes of Italians as gangsters or Mafia, a cause not helped by the success of movies that portrayed them as such. In recent years, they have largely left the city for the suburbs, become educated, and moved into key roles in education, government, and politics. The North End of Boston still has a sizable Italian population, but nothing like it once was when Italians were the dominant ethnic group in that neighborhood.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: Written after originally reading book approx Nov 2011.

"North End Italians gathered on street corners and in grocery stores to chat, shared a cup of coffee or a glass of wine at the kitchen table to discuss each others' families or news from the Old Country, called to each other from window to window or fire escape to street, and sat on their front stairs or on the chairs along the sidewalk to gossip and debate the day's events... On those same summer Sunday mornings, the pleasant appetite-inducing aroma of simmering tomato sauce—or "gravy," as many Southern Italians and Sicilians referred to it—wafted through open windows in anticipation of the noontime pasta (or "macaroni," as Boston Italians called it in the early days) feast. All of these customs would continue for decades."

In New York, Little Italy is a thing of the past: While several restaurants live on, lending the historic neighborhood an old-world face for tourists, so few traces of community heritage remain that the rooftops and feasts of Vito Corleone seem to speak of a different country entirely. New York is not unique in this respect; demographic shifts have long been corroding the concept of urban Italian neighborhoods. Boston's North End is not spared by this trend, yet you can take the Green Line to Haymarket today and within a couple blocks still find yourself immersed in a different era.

I've made many a pilgrimage across town from the Allston border just for buffalo mozzarella and daily fresh pasta from a tiny North End grocer; every single time I've taken visitors into the North End over an August weekend we've accidentally found ourselves thick in the middle of the modern-day feast from the Godfather Part 2. I have no qualms biting the bullet on this one: When it comes to O.G. Italian neighborhoods, the scoreboard says Boston 1, New York 0.

In The Boston Italians, Stephen Puleo takes us back in time to explore the arrival and evolution of Italian culture in Boston (and by proxy, America) as exemplified by the concentration and vivid livelihoods of immigrants in the tiny cluster of city blocks known as the North End. Puleo writes about the means and trends of immigrants at large (including an excellent section, rife with historical curiosities, on what motivated the average poor Italian to flee the less-than-ideal homeland countryside), but much of his story is centered around a couple notable superheroes, men unknown to modern popular history but vital to the story of the Italian immigrant.

Popular perception has long held that Italian-Americans, from Capone to Soprano, have typified the polar opposite of legitimate business. Puleo challenges this by highlighting the fascinating careers of George Scigliano and James Donnaruma, tenacious advocates for their peers who were among the first wave of Italians in America. Both were quick to "learn the ropes" of American culture and create and maintain institutions of excellence – political in Scigliano's case, charities and the press for Donnaruma – that achieved reforms and served as positive examples for generations of Italian-Americans. Puleo's book is at its strongest when he explores the whole culture through the stories of these brilliant unsung heroes. When you learn about the justice Scigliano successfully encoded into law on behalf of Italian laborers, in an era so hostile to immigrants, it's downright tragic that John Gotti (or taking it a step further, the cast of Jersey Shore) is a household name while George Scigliano's goes unspoken.

It's clear that this dissonance has affected the author as well; Puleo berates with passionate antipathy both the real and the fictional Mafia. He even scolds Robert De Niro, which I felt was taking things too far; De Niro, after all, has forever etched an Italian name into the arts' hall of fame, and he played a good many roles beyond the mobster (an Irish mobster!) in Goodfellas.

But I digress.

In passages exploring the Italian-dominated anarchist movement of the '20s, Puleo circles back to the phrase "the majority of hard-working Italians did/were not" near the point of unsubtle excess. It helps to understand Puleo's passionate, if unprompted, defense of his heritage, even his fly-swatting of mafia flick actors like De Niro, in the context that this book partly doubles as the author's family autobiography. I found the shifting perspective confusing at first, but ultimately a tender example of family bonds and a firm showcase of an author proud of his heritage and tradition.

Though The Boston Italians' first few chapters are its most compelling, a full read will be worthwhile even to Boston and/or Italo-American outsiders, who pick the book up curious to learn about how a culture of immigrants settled and integrated into a new world, its family- and food-centric traditions threatened and re-affirmed alike. Puleo's narrative is chock full of didn't-know-that's: from the unspoken outsiders' "alliance" between early Italian immigrants and blacks (Southern Italians, unlike their almost Germanic cousins to the north, were initially classed as nonwhite, and were second only to African-Americans as the frequentest lynched nationality) to Italians' collective cultural shunning of FDR over a single poorly chosen metaphor.

There's a universal lesson to early Italian-American history worth knowing. The average Italian laborer, holding on to a strange language and sending money to the homeland for his family, was popularly viewed as a leech, stereotyped as lazy and unreliable. From the sometimes surprising details of that narrative I've walked away edified, but also inspired: Puleo informs about institutions, including a couple charities (such as the Italian Home for Children), that persist to this day, yet were founded by Italians far from culturally accepted and armed with little other than visions and work ethic.

A bit of a niche subject, but a good read, with a great knack for pulling visions of never-say-die heritage from the shadows of the past, and shining a light on a couple forgotten heroes in the process.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading about my favorite section (The North End) of my favorite city and the Italian immigrants who made it what it is. While Mr. Puleo highlights so many Italians and Italian Americans who have contributed greatly to the city, state, and country, it is unfortunate that he tells the story of two men whose actions ruined their reputations after the writing of the book. People mess up all the time, and Puleo could not have known what these two would do in the future.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A neighbor loaned this book to me. I don't specifically have an interest in Boston Italians but it was an interesting immigration story. It covered the late 1800's to the present day. The story revolves around the personal stories of the Post Gazette and its owner/editor, and the author's family. Then adds the bigger picture of immigrating and assimilating into the American culture.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe one third of the book is about Boston Italians, there is a lot of interesting history about the US's entering WWII and lots and lots of statistics that I just glossed over. I enjoyed the chapters about the North End as I lived there from 1979 to 1991 and it still had a feel of the old days about it back then. But it was a little too text-bookish for me.

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is mainly about James Donnaruma, the editor/ owner of the Boston Italian newspaper, post gazette. His politics and the work he did to help the Italian immigrants in and around Boston.

It is a good historical reference about the politics and attitudes towards the Italians but not necessarily the everyday struggles and lives of the poor families trying to make it in a foreign land.

[Shelley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting facts.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

INCREDIBLE, ENLIGHTENING, ENJOYABLE.

“The grueling work Italians performed belied a common legend that had traveled from America to Italy, causing one immigrant to remark: “I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, I found out three things: first, the streets weren’t paved with gold; second, they weren’t paved at all; and third, I was expected to pave them.’ “—page 93

When I was a boy growing up on the East Coast in the 1950s, the Italians were one of the most admired, most romanticized, groups of people around. I think every boy, from Bayonne to Boston, in those days, who wasn’t already Italian, must have, at one point or another, wanted to be.

Why not? The Italians had some of the best looking, the best dressed, the most charismatic, and the happiest people. And, more important, they had the best tasting food. They also had the best singers, the best boxers, the best baseball players, and the most notorious gangsters. So what was not to envy?

A few generations before that time, however, as Stephen Puelo’s extremely good book, ‘The Boston Italians: A Story of Pride, Perseverance, and Paesani, from the Years of the Great Immigration to the Present Day’ makes apparent—during the time of the Great Immigration, 1880 to 1920, and though the Second World War, it was a completely different story. The Italians, especially those from southern Italy, were one of the most looked down on, most discriminated against, most persecuted, and most lynched (second only to black Americans) ethnic groups that ever came to American shores.

My only qualm with ‘The Boston Italians,’ was that the fist half of the book contained many, if not all, of the same people, places and events; the same stories—some almost word for word—that I’d already read in Puelo’s book, ‘Dark Tide,’ only a week earlier. To borrow words from New York Yankees catcher, Yogi Berra, it was like having ‘déjà vu all over again.’ That’s okay, though, because they were good stories; and, almost sixty years beyond boyhood, my fascination with Italian-American culture still hasn’t abated.

Recommendation: Read this book. Learn some stuff. And be brighter, better and happier for the experience.

Kindle Edition eBook on iPad, 323 pages

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic historical account peppered with autobiographical vignettes of the author's family's immigration and assimilation experience in Boston's historic North End. I had only read briefly about the case of Sacco and Vanzetti in my high school and college history courses, but Mr. Puleo did a fine job of setting the stage and elucidating on the context of anarchy and the start of the "Red Scare" in the United States. There were many points of interest that I had only heard brief menion of prior to reading this book, so I definitely appreciate the author's careful and thorough research into the subject matter. Several examples include the temporary internment of Italians in America during WWII, the rise of James Donnaruma (founder of La Gazetta, an Italian newspaper in Boston), and various Italian-American politicians including Boston Mayor Tom Menino. What really struck me was the pervasive notion of stereotyping of Italians from the 1880's through today. While much has been done to debunk these stereotypes (read: The Godfather, the Sopranos, etc.), much of the American public cannot hear the words "Italian-American" without making some connotations to the Mafia. The author doesn't condemn such near-involuntary knee-jerk associations, but presents the stereotypes alongside shining examples of transcendence and incredible accomplishment. I found this book to be extremely enlightening, engaging, and entertaining.

[Stephanie Luce · Rating 3 out of 5]

A riveting account of the Italian experience in Boston, particularly in the North End. I was a bit disappointed that there was no mention of my great-grandfather, Ignazio Gallo, one of the founders of St. Joseph's Feast Day in the North End. Neither was there any mention of my grandmother's uncle, Salvatore Giambarresi and his wife, Anna Porter Giambarresi and the work they did with and for the Italian immigrants at the turn of the twentieth century.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting overview of Italian immigration into the North End of Boston in the early part of the century. It acts as a pretty good microcosm of Italian immigration in a number of other places - I could see a lot of parallels to the stories of my parents from Central NJ. Also brings to light how much discrimination Italians faced in the early part of the last century.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book doesn't have a lot of negative things to say about the Boston Italians, and glazes over the subject of Fascism in the North End despite the editor of the Gazette, a main character in his narrative, being a Fascist sympathizer who was investigated by the FBI, this is an otherwise useful local history.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone with Italian ancestors, or immigrant ancestors (I guess that's the majority of Americans), should read this book. It offers a great perspective on the life of an American immigrant and the hardships they endured for a better life!

[Sanjay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the profiles of the Italian-American community in Boston. However the profiles of prominent Italian Americans, especially the modern ones, were bland, laudatory and avoided mention of any controversy.

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the first 2/3 of this book. Really interesting stuff about why Italians immigrated, their lack of assimilation, and Americans' perceptions of Italian culture. The last 1/3 is more about Italian-American success in politics, which was much less interesting to me.

[Ginny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book since my ancesters were Boston Italians. I could relate to lots of the anecdotes about the different families.

[Meredith]

Great book!

[Pat Baratta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable. Well writtem, excellent research and fact finding. Made me wish I had spoken more to my father about his jounry to this country.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story of just what it says - the Italian immigrant generation in Boston. Would be of interest to anyone who enjoys the history and cultures of Boston

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good I had to pass it along to others.