Italian immigrants who arrived in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had to face all kinds of obstacles, but also prejudices, hostility and even violence from great part of the American society. The picture changed much later when figures like Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio or Fiorello LaGuardia became admired characters and contributed to defeating the stereotype of the Italian gangster. Nowadays there is a worrying wave of discrimination against the Italian-Americans. Will the United States admit a new outbreak of violence towards this group?

Catherine Dumont is an author and historian. Named as Distinguished Professor of American Studies and History, her research interests include the construction of racial identity and class structures.