"Some five and a half million fellow Italians followed Cristoforo Colombo of Genoa across the Atlantic, most of them within the past century. La Storia (the word means "history" as well as "story") is the first comprehensive account of the Italian American immigration, combining historical research with the gripping personal narratives of the immigrants themselves and their descendants - first-person stories of the adventurers, missionaries, artisans, laborers, and peasants of both sexes who settled throughout the United States, surviving hardship to become an integral and valued part of our national fabric." "Their story begins in the Old Country, where desperate poverty, especially in the South, forced entire families to uproot themselves. After a difficult passage, the immigrants faced new challenges in America, most notably the fierce discrimination that unfairly branded them a criminal race and to an extent continues to the present day, alongside the far wider acceptance a true assessment of their characteristics and achievements has brought them." "Above all, this is a story of people - people in all their warmth and variety, from those who remain unsung outside the affection and respect of their immediate families to the talented and celebrated - from Verrazzano, Da Ponte, La Guardia, Sinatra, DiMaggio, Puzo, Iacocca, and Cuomo to De Niro, Scorsese, Madonna, and many more - who have touched the lives of millions of fellow Americans"--Back cover.