An expanded version of a long essay that originally appeared in Renzo De Felice's journal, Storia Contemporanea, in 1995, Blackshirts in Little Italy is a study combining immigration history, contested political loyalties, and the emergence of an Italian American identity in the early years of the twentieth century. Based on extensive archival research--including the Archivio Centrale dello Stato and the Archivio Storico del Ministero degli Affari Esteri in Italy, and the National Archives and FBI records in Washington--Cannistraro meticulously reconstructs a lost epoch. Italians in America were torn: sentiment and nostalgia demanded loyalty to a nation that had--in effect--rejected them politically, culturally, and economically; their new country presented generous opportunities, but at a price.

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It is disappointing that the study ends in 1929 with the dissolution of the Fascist League of North America, for the next two decades saw conflicting emotions and politics among Italian Americans. ... It is to be hoped that Cannistraro's excellent study will act as a catalyst for other scholars to pursue these neglected pages of history.