The Italian-American Vote in Providence, Rhode Island, 1916-1948

Download or read book The Italian-American Vote in Providence, Rhode Island, 1916-1948 written by Stefano Luconi and published by Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Italian Americans made a significant contribution to Franklin D. Roosevelt's election to the White House in 1932 and to the victory of the Democratic Party in the four subsequent presidential contests. This volume offers a case study of their electoral behavior. Through a quantitative analysis of the Italian-American vote between 1916 and 1948, this study demonstrates that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the creation of a Democratic majority in the Little Italy of Providence foreran both Alfred Smith's 1928 candidacy for the presidency and the Depression of the 1930s. War II and underwent a revitalization in the postwar years. Political recognition and patronage were so central to Italian Americans' party choice that their support for the Democratic Party reached a climax when a member of the community, John Pastore, ran for governor on the Democratic ticket in the mid 1940s. Stefano Luconi teaches the History of North America at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Florence.