An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York’s Irish and Italians

The Irish arrived in the U.S. in large numbers first during the 1840s and ’50s. Then, between 1880 and 1920, came the Italians. For decades, their frequently “nasty and intense” competition touched virtually every aspect of Irish and Italian lives in New York: churches, workplaces, the waterfront, the stage, police stations, and union offices. In this enlightening and entertaining history, Pulitzer-winning journalist Moses (The Saint and the Sultan) relates how the two groups “learned to love each other after decades of hostility and ethnic rivalry.” With a cast of saints (Mother Cabrini), sinners (Al Capone), politicians, and ordinary people, Moses offers emblematic, often fascinating tales, including the “Irish-Italian love story” of Elisabeth Gurley Flynn and Carlo Tesca, the “spectacular achievements” of NYPD officer Joseph (Guiseppe) Petrosino, and Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby’s relationship. Alongside deep archival digging, Moses tells a personal story (growing up Italian-American, marrying an Irish-American) that’s symbolic in its own way of the “common ground” attained, as he wittily puts it, when “Irish eyes smiled—on Italian food.” Secure as Moses’s focus is, the work also has a more universal application, foreshadowing the often “nasty and intense” experiences of African-Americans and Latinos in those same historically contested arenas. [em]Agent: Steve Hanselman, LevelFiveMedia. (July) [/em]