Table of Contents

Introduction. All Things Italian: Italian American Consumers, the Transnational Formation of Taste, and the Commodification of Difference Simone Cinotto Part I. Immigrants Encounter and Remake U.S. Consumer Society: The Formation of Italian American Identity Through Commodities and Commercial Leisure, 1900-30 1. Visibly Fashionable: The Changing Role of Clothes in the Everyday Life of Italian American Immigrant Women Vittoria Caterina Caratozzolo 2. Making Space for Domesticity: Housing, Furnishings, Kitchenware, and Bedding in Working-Class Italian American Homes, 1900-40 Maddalena Tirabassi 3. "In Italy Everyone Enjoys It-Why not in America?": Italian Americans and Consumption in Transnational Perspective during the Early Twentieth Century Elizabeth Zanoni 4. Sovereign Consumption: Italian Americans' Transnational Film Culture in 1920s New York City Giorgio Bertellini 5. Consuming "La Bella Figura": Charles Atlas and American Masculinity, 1910-1940 Dominique Padurano 6. Radical Visions and Consumption: Culture and Leisure in the Early-Twentieth-century Italian American Left Marcella Bencivenni Part II. The Politics and Style of Italian American Consumerism, 1930-80 7. Italian Americans, the New Deal State, and the Making of Citizen Consumers Stefano Luconi 8. Italian Americans, Consumerism, and the Cold War in Transnational Perspective Danielle Battisti 9. Italian Doo-Wop: Sense of Place, Politics of Style, and Racial Crossovers in Postwar New York City Simone Cinotto 10. Consuming Italian Americans: Invoking Ethnicity in the Buying and Selling Guido Donald Tricarico Part III. Consuming Italian American Identities in the Multicultural Age, 1980 to the Present 11. The Double Life of the Italian Suit: Italian Americans and the "Made in Italy" Label Courtney Ritter 12. Sideline Shtick: The Italian American Basketball Coach and Consumable Images of Racial and Ethnic Masculinity John Gennari 13. The Immigrant Enclave as Theme Park: Culture, Capital, and Urban Change in New York's Little Italies Ervin Kosta 14. We Are Family: Ethnic Food Marketing and the Consumption of Authenticity in Italian-Themed Chain Restaurants Fabio Parasecoli List of Contributors Index

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A fascinating exploration of consumer culture in Italian American history and life, the role of consumption in the production of ethnic identities, and the commodification of cultural difference.

About the Author

Simone Cinotto teaches history at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, Pollenzo, Italy. He is the author of The Italian American Table: Food, Family, and Community in New York City and Soft Soil, Black Grapes: The Birth of Italian Winemaking in California.

Reviews

"This is an important volume contributing to the diachronic study of Italian American culture and identity and their intersections with symbolic and material consumption in a transnational framework. The sociological analysis advances an understanding of ethnicity beyond the ideology of easily disposable symbolic identities, opening new venues for thinking about European Americans."-Yiorgos Anagnostou, Ohio State University