Abstract
Reviewed by: Stella Mattioli, University of Virginia, USA
Among other things, Italians are famous for residing in almost every country in the world. For many decades, multiple migrations brought thousands of Italians of different ages to other countries to find a job and start a new life. In many cases, the stories of these migration waves are well known; in others, they are less so. Here lies the importance of the research that Hugh Shankland has conducted. His book focuses on one of these particular cases: Out of Italy: The Story of Italians in North East England tells many stories, never told before, of Italians through the years who moved to England in search of fortune.
The book has a structure that makes it easy to read. It is divided into chapters, each on a specific aspect of Italian immigration and the life of Italian people in England. Every chapter ends with a bibliography, allowing researchers and scholars to gather more information about the subjects tackled in each chapter. Even with this structure, the book does not lose its sense of being a whole entity, telling the stories of people who, at different times, contributed to shaping contemporary English society.
As with all migrations, the Italian one to England was not easy. The author focuses, for example, on the lives of poor Italian children who were used as near-slaves, playing in the streets and begging for charity, or “working” for other Italian people. This is one of the most poignant chapters of the book, one that shows the other side of Italian immigration in Europe.
The book starts with an interesting and historical excursus about the birth of popular jobs that Italian specialists brought abroad. For example, the author talks about the tradition of barometer makers (“barometai” in Italian), and the workers who created plaster statuettes. Italian workers brought their experience abroad and found a way to build a new life far from home, with a new reputation for qualified workers, blending into the societies and cultures that welcomed them.
In my opinion, this is one of the most interesting parts of the book, because it shows a side of Italian emigration that is still not very well-known, depicting a different reality from the one we usually imagine, of pizza chefs and restaurant owners. But Italians in England were not limited to these kinds of jobs; in addition to being barometai and minstrels, Italians started the prolific industry of making ice cream, becoming famous and starting a new tradition in England. This contributes, in my opinion, to forming another idea, completing the one already existent, about the Italian cuisine tradition and the capacity of Italians to start industries associated with food.
Many readers will find it especially interesting to see how the author chooses to add photos to his research. In my opinion, this helps a great deal to put the stories of the people in the book into context, making the reading much easier and far more enjoyable. For instance, Angelo Rago is not just a name without a face: he is a real person who we can see pictured at work, after reading his story. And the same for many other individuals and families the author presents in his research: like Pasqualino Fulgenzi, Umberto Viglianisi, and many others. The author doesn’t only include pictures of people, but also of their shops and their different commercial activities.
In conclusion, I think that this research is presented as an enjoyable story that never becomes dull. This is also thanks to the sensitivity the author employs in telling the stories of people, as he traces their lives and their experiences in another country.