Introduction

This chapter introduces the entire volume and thus continues a critical conversation started in New Italian Migrations to the United States, Volume 1: Politics and History Since 1945. This introductory essay considers a number of issues pertaining to creativity and culture, across both vernacular and commodified arenas. First, it recapitulates basic information about migratory flows from Italy to the United States since 1945: class, education, and motivation for emigrating are barometers employed to distinguish between different kinds of Italian migrants and Italian Americans during the past seventy years. The chapter develops increasing attention to the study of the specificity of Italian immigrants and expressive culture since 1945. Each new group of Italian migrants and their descendants creates fresh models of Italian American identity and culture and impact pre-existing ones. They effectively and continually reboot Italian America.