Cannato, Vincent J.​“What Sets Italian Americans Off From Other Immigrants?

” ​National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)​, Jan. 2015,
www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/januaryfebruary/feature/what-sets-italian-americ
ans-other-immigrants.
This online article addresses the differences between Italian-Americans and Italian
immigrants and people of different ethnicities. It is essentially a summary itself of a 2015
documentary, which explores culture, including that of Italian-Americans. The source of
publication, Endowment for the Humanities, is an objective charity organization that is
dedicated to helping ethnic groups and educating the public about them. Because of the
nature of the organization, I do not suspect that there will be any sort of bias involved in its
content. This source will fit very well into my research and with my oral history project
because much of what I will be asking my interviewee about is the nature of
Italian-American culture, and what it was like to grow up in that environment. Having the
background knowledge of the Italian culture will definitely aid in my understanding of
what my interviewee will explain during our interview.

Editors, History.com. “Mafia in the United States.” ​History.com​, A&E Television Networks,
22 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/crime/mafia-in-the-united-states.
This History.com article explores the origins and activities of the Italian-American
mob in the 20th century. History.com is one of the most widely known and used historical
sources. It is so large that there is a television channel, as well as a website with millions of
articles on thousands of topics. Educators commonly use this source in their classrooms, so I
can trust this source. I chose this article because it was extremely important for my thesis:
reading this article actually prompted my thesis idea. Although my interviewee’s family
had no involvement with the Mafia, the difference between her life and the life of a mafia
member is explored through my thesis.

Grabianowski, Ed. “How Italian Traditions Work: Italian Catholicism.” ​HowStuffWorks,​

HowStuffWorks, 25 July 2011,
people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/national-traditions/italian-tradition2.h
tm.
This source is a short summary of the influence of the Roman Catholic Church on the
Italian and Italian-American populations. Although ‘HowStuffWorks.com’ is not generally
accepted as a source of credible or historical information, the site is monitored and edited by
an educated staff of people, all with at least a Bachelor’s degree. The article also has in-text
citations which are linked to the original source of their information, (all of which are
credible) which shows that it is accurate. I chose this source for my research because I
wanted to ask my interviewee about the influence the Catholic Church had on her within
my interview. I also wanted to consider these findings for supporting my thesis statement.
Grabianowski, Ed. “How Italian Traditions Work: Traditions of Italian Food.”
HowStuffWorks​, HowStuffWorks, 25 July 2011,
people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/national-traditions/italian-tradition1.h
tm.
This source is a short summary of the influence of the importance of food and cooking
in Italian and Italian-American culture, and is part of an article series with the previous
‘HowStuffWorks’ article; therefore, the credibility is the same: the site is monitored and edited
by an educated staff of people, all with at least a Bachelor’s degree. The article also has
in-text citations which are linked to the original source of their information, (all of which are
credible) which shows that it is accurate. I wanted an article on food because it is, as many
know, one of the core parts of Italian-American culture and lifestyle. I needed this
information to give a full and accurate image of the Italian-American life. I did not ask my
interviewee any specific questions about Italian cuisine; however, the context of the culture is
necessary.

“Italian American History and Culture.” ​USCitizenship.info | Italian American History

and Culture,​ www.uscitizenship.info/italian-american-history-and-culture/.
This source is essentially an outline of the history of Italian immigration. The article
touches on various time periods, including the early period, the main period of immigration,
World War I and II, and the contemporary period. The online source is credible because its
purpose is to aid immigrants in the immigration and US Citizenship processes. Its main focus
is immigration, so I assume its information would be accurate. I chose this article because it
will help me to understand the reason(s) why my interviewee’s grandparents decided to
move here, which may also help me to understand the nature of my interviewee’s
relationship with her grandparents. The source also includes information about World War
II, which my interviewee lived through, as well as the contemporary period in which she
was a young adult. This information could give me some great context as to why certain
things in my interviewee’s life happened when or how they did.

“Italian Immigration: Under Attack .” ​The Library of Congress ,​

www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/
immigration/italian8.html.
This article summarizes some of the racism and prejudice that Italian-Americans had
to face once they began their lives in the United States. This source is extremely credible
because it is from The Library of Congress the nation's oldest federal cultural institution,
which serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also legally approved as a ‘.gov’ site which
shows that it cannot have possible bias. From reading it, it is purely objective information. I
chose to use this source because not only did it give me a more accurate picture of what
immigration was truly like for Italian-Americans, but it gave me a some good background
information for developing my thesis statement. Although my interviewee did not touch on
any type of prejudice against her ethnicity, I thought it would still be important to know
what the earlier generations of her/our family went through during the immigration process.

Monar, Alexandra. “From Europe to America: Immigration Through Family Tales.”

History of Italian Immigration​, 15 Dec. 2010,
www.mtholyoke.edu/~molna22a/classweb/politics/Italianhistory.html.
This source is a short summary outline of the purpose, time period, and locations of
Italian-American immigration. This source was published on Mtholyoke.edu, and because it
uses a ‘.edu’ tag, it can be assumed that the source is credible, as only approved, credible
websites are legally allowed to receive the “.edu” tag. Again, it can be assumed that these
types of organizations would only publish credible and unbiased information, as their
purpose is to educate the public. I chose this site because it gives a substantial amount of
information about the general Italian immigration process during the late 19th and early
20th centuries. My interviewee’s grandparents were Italian immigrants, and my interview
focuses a lot on her relationship with them, so I thought it would be very important to have
background on what their lives were like, also considering that my interviewee would not
likely know the details of their immigration to the United States.

Panetta, Daniela. “The Role of Italian Women vs. The Role of Italian American Women.”
New Views on Gender 2014,​ pp. 69.
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/iusbgender/article/download/13617/1
9846/.
This source is different than all the others that I collected, as it is actually a published
journal. The journal focuses its information on not only the role of women but the role of
women with Italian backgrounds. It covers many aspects that are commonly studied,
including origins, religion, economic opportunities, biological information, and the changes in
the roles of these women. The journal was published on Scholarworks.edu. Generally, .edu
sites are credible as they are reserved especially for colleges, universities, and educational
systems. It can be assumed that these types of organizations would only publish credible and
unbiased information, as their purpose is to educate the public. I selected this source because it
seems to be heavily researched, drawing from multiple sources, which seemed to me that its
information would be very accurate. The topic itself is also perfect for what I am exploring
in this project. My interviewee is an Italian-American woman, so having background on the
original expectations put on her would give me insight into what she may have felt about
these pressures or why she was raised in the specific way that she was. Since my
interviewee is an Italian-American, American-born citizen and her grandmothers on both
sides were immigrants, this source could show me the clear differences between a woman
who is of Italian heritage but born in the United States vs. a woman who is of Italian
nationality.

Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station. “Dominant Groups in the Total Foreign-Born

Population in Each Town.” ​Connecticut Digital Archive | Connect. Preserve. Share​,
University of Connecticut Archives & Special Collections,
hdl.handle.net/11134/20002:860073402.
My first source is a map of the dominant immigrant groups in each town of
Connecticut in 1940, coordinated by color. The data was originally collected, analyzed, and
put into this map by the Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station in 1940; therefore, it is also a
primary source. Unlike the rest of my sources, this is an image/map, which will give a
different type of information. Because of the simplicity of this map, it will give me very little
extensive information, whereas the written sources I have chosen are more likely to go into
detail. This source is quite credible, as I found it on the University of Connecticut Archives
and Special Collections online database, which must have credible sources for its students. It
was originally found and collected by UCONN from the Connecticut Digital Archive, which
is a database of primary sources related to the history of Connecticut. This source fits
absolutely perfectly in with my oral history project topic: the exploration of Italian-American
culture in Connecticut in the 40s-60s. My interviewee is a third generation Italian
immigrant who lived in New Haven for much of her childhood, and this map confirms the
environment she lived in as very populated with Italian immigrants and Italian-Americans
like her family.

“The 1950s – 1960s.” ​The Italian Tribune,​ 2 Aug. 2017,

www.italiantribune.com/the-1950s-1960s/.
This source simply gives an overview of Italian-American culture in the 1950s and
1960s year-by-year. The source of publication is The Italian Tribune, a weekly
Italian-American newspaper that has been in publication since 1930. Because it has been in
publication for nearly a century, it is safe to say that this is a pretty credible source of
information. The purpose of the newspaper is also to inform the public about
Italian-American culture; therefore, an article of this nature is essentially their “specialty.” I
thought this article would be perfect to use for research for my oral history project because
the years that my topic spans are the 1940s-1960s. The main part of my interviewee’s life
was spent in the 50s and 60s, so having a considerable amount of background knowledge
on the culture she experienced during that time period will be very helpful when creating
questions as well as fully understanding any information she will give me during the
interview.
“​The Story of Connecticut's Italians.” ​We the Italians,​ 10 June 2013,
wetheitalians.com/default/the-story-of-connecticut-s-italians.
This source is a summary of the Italian settlement in Connecticut, including the
number of immigrants, the types of jobs they took after settling, as well as their average
daily life. The source seems to be quite credible, as the entire website is dedicated to
researching and educating the public about Italian culture and lifestyle, and they also sited
their sources at the bottom of the article. It is also written at the bottom of the page that “A
version of this article was commissioned for the Encyclopedia of Connecticut History Online
currently under development by the Connecticut Humanities Council”, which leads me to
think it must be credible: an inaccurate article would never be published in an encyclopedia.
I chose this article mainly as a secondary source for my primary source; however, it ended
up being much more useful in my overall contextualization of my interview. My
interviewee’s family all settled in Connecticut, and she was raised in Connecticut, so it gave
me more specific and relevant information than articles about the general Italian
immigration and settlement might have.

Thomas, Alison Jean. “Italian Family Life.” ​LoveToKnow​, LoveToKnow Corp,

family.lovetoknow.com/about-family-values/italian-family-life.
This is an online article from Lovetoknow.com that explores the modern familial
traditions within Italian and Italian-American life, including the family unit, children, social
life, street life, celebrations, gender, marriage, and respect for the family. Although this
website is not known to publish historical information, this specific article was written by a
retired educator. The information is objective. I chose this source because my interview
questions and my thesis revolve around the idea of family and how Italian-Americans
value that. I dedicated an entire portion of my interview to family life so I could have
enough information to support my thesis.