An Unlikely Union

An Unlikely Union 4/5

I grew up in the 1970’s in a small Pennsylvania city that still had its ethnic identities intact. Each group- be they Irish, Italian, Polish, German, Lithuanian, etc. had their own churches, bars, funeral homes, cemeteries, restaurants and neighborhoods. The rivalries between them were mostly friendly and took the form of good-natured ribbing, jokes, and softball and dart tournaments. Everybody knew everyone else’s ethnic foods, and the best places to get them. As a result, I was looking forward to this book.

=== The Good Stuff ===

* Paul Moses is a delightful story-teller, and captures the ethnic rivalries between the Irish and Italians quite well. While I was not alive during the violent times, the stories I heard from old-timers match the descriptions in the book of the struggles. At the turn of the century, survival was really thought of as a zero-sum game, so if another group was improving their lot, it was at your expense.

* The book concentrates on a number of different areas- religion, government and public service, electioneering, entertainment and everyday life. Moses captures both the lighter side of the conflicts- “The Italians taught the Irish how to eat”, and the more serious side as we see the Italians struggle to survive in a city dominated by the Irish political machine of Tammany Hall. The stereotypical Irish Cop was a reality-as Italians were a rarity in public service, even as their population percentage increased.

* Moses makes a few very interesting points, the type of thing that is obvious once it is pointed out to you. For example, most Southern Italian immigrants were distrustful of organized religion due to their experiences in Italy. As a result, even though they shared a religion with a percentage of the Irish, they did not support or attend churches to the same extent. However, after a generation or so, the Italians became much more avid church-goers, mimicking the habits of the Irish…while the Irish became more casual attendees.

* Finally, Moses captures the way the two groups have intermixed. Intermarriage went from being shocking to increasingly common, and the politics and cultures of the two groups began to align. Today, if it is not Saint Patrick’s Day, or Columbus Day, it is tough to tell the two groups apart.

=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===

* Each of the sections of the book is somewhat self-contained, and as a result, some of the information gets a little repetitive. There must be six different explanations of how the Italians went from being a minority to having roughly equal population and status with the Irish. True enough, but I believed it the first time.

* Some of the analysis seems a bit forced. For example, one section of the book describes the “rivalry” between the Italian singers such as Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra with the Irish Bing Crosby. I didn’t live through those times, but I wonder if the author confuses good entertainment marketing with ethnic rivalry.

* The author can get carried away at times with data, and not always present it in the easiest to grasp manner. For example, a section on the rate of Italian/Irish intermarriage seems to drag on with statistics-although the point of increasing intermarriage was easily grasped.

* The obvious question the book brings up is are today’s immigrants any different. Are the current clusters of immigrants really not becoming part of the American melting pot, or does it just seem that way. Moses brings up many good points about how the old neighborhoods worked-and since both groups were somewhat thrown together by circumstances, you couldn’t help but intermix. But today, with the rise of targeted communications, perhaps immigrants have an easier time not integrating. It would have been a logical extension of the book, and I hope to see a follow-up.

=== Summary ===
I found the book to be enjoyable, and a relatively easy read. The stories and analysis were interesting enough to keep my interest, and Moses made a few points that I had never considered…and was able to support his arguments. If you are at all interested in the topic, it is well worth a read.