Italian history and gli italiani nel mondo,part I

Abstract

Italian historians have not yet seriously grappled with the emigration of twenty‐seven million Italians as an interpretative theme. This article reviews the methodological challenges to such an undertaking. Existing works suggests that ‘Italy‐outward’ research strategies, exploration of Italian connections to its ‘diaspora’, and attention to labor recruitment and militancy, and return migration are promising approaches. Since most interpretation of Italian migration still occurs within the histories of receiving nations, Part I also provides a review of the historiography on Italian immigrants in the English‐speaking world, to be followed in Part II by a comparable review of Italians living and working in France, South America and central Europe.