Darkest Italy Revisited: American Hyper-Nationalism and the Making of the “Criminal Immigrant”. From the Age of Thomas Jefferson to the Rise of Donald J. Trump, 1776-2018

Since taking the oath of office in January 2017, the controversies surrounding President Trump’s stance on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border continue to make headlines and change lives. At stake in contemporary debates about Mexican immigration to the US are fundamental questions about A...

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Autor principal:	Anthony Antonucci
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN IT
Publicado:	Università degli Studi di Torino 2019
Materias:	Transnationalism, Grand Tourism, Immigration, Criminality, Ethno-Racial Formation America E11-143 American literature PS1-3576
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/ad7a854b1cab4c199b082b2cabb096b8
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:ad7a854b1cab4c199b082b2cabb096b82021-11-23T14:21:34ZDarkest Italy Revisited: American Hyper-Nationalism and the Making of the “Criminal Immigrant”. From the Age of Thomas Jefferson to the Rise of Donald J. Trump, 1776-201810.13135/2612-5641/29292612-5641https://doaj.org/article/ad7a854b1cab4c199b082b2cabb096b82019-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/jamit/article/view/2929https://doaj.org/toc/2612-5641 Since taking the oath of office in January 2017, the controversies surrounding President Trump’s stance on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border continue to make headlines and change lives. At stake in contemporary debates about Mexican immigration to the US are fundamental questions about American national identity and the United States’ role in the wider world: What is an American? Who can become one and how? As it turns out, xenophobia, hyper nationalism and charges of foreign criminality constitute a tradition in US politics that is as old as the republic- and as American as apple pie. Nowhere is this more evident than in the history of Southern Italian immigration to the United States prior to 1924. Tracing Americans’ ideas about Italians’ “national character” from 1776- 1865, this paper examines the perceptions and debates that defined American encounters with the first immigrants identified as a “criminal group” inside the United States: Italians. Comparing the views of critics and defenders of Italian’s alleged criminality alike, including Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, as well as novelists Washington Irving, Henry T. Tuckerman and Theodore Dwight, my work shows that a spectrum of opinion about Italy and the “Italian character” existed in the United States before the Civil war and that these ideas left a lasting legacy with measurable effects on American culture, foreign policy and immigration law through 1924. The essay concludes by reflecting on contemporary debates about immigration policy, the US-Mexico border and Trump-era discourse on the “character” of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans against the backdrop of Italian immigration to America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Anthony AntonucciUniversità degli Studi di TorinoarticleTransnationalism, Grand Tourism, Immigration, Criminality, Ethno-Racial FormationAmericaE11-143American literaturePS1-3576ENITJAm It!, Iss 1 (2019)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN IT
topic	Transnationalism, Grand Tourism, Immigration, Criminality, Ethno-Racial Formation America E11-143 American literature PS1-3576
spellingShingle	Transnationalism, Grand Tourism, Immigration, Criminality, Ethno-Racial Formation America E11-143 American literature PS1-3576 Anthony Antonucci Darkest Italy Revisited: American Hyper-Nationalism and the Making of the “Criminal Immigrant”. From the Age of Thomas Jefferson to the Rise of Donald J. Trump, 1776-2018
description	Since taking the oath of office in January 2017, the controversies surrounding President Trump’s stance on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border continue to make headlines and change lives. At stake in contemporary debates about Mexican immigration to the US are fundamental questions about American national identity and the United States’ role in the wider world: What is an American? Who can become one and how? As it turns out, xenophobia, hyper nationalism and charges of foreign criminality constitute a tradition in US politics that is as old as the republic- and as American as apple pie. Nowhere is this more evident than in the history of Southern Italian immigration to the United States prior to 1924. Tracing Americans’ ideas about Italians’ “national character” from 1776- 1865, this paper examines the perceptions and debates that defined American encounters with the first immigrants identified as a “criminal group” inside the United States: Italians. Comparing the views of critics and defenders of Italian’s alleged criminality alike, including Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, as well as novelists Washington Irving, Henry T. Tuckerman and Theodore Dwight, my work shows that a spectrum of opinion about Italy and the “Italian character” existed in the United States before the Civil war and that these ideas left a lasting legacy with measurable effects on American culture, foreign policy and immigration law through 1924. The essay concludes by reflecting on contemporary debates about immigration policy, the US-Mexico border and Trump-era discourse on the “character” of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans against the backdrop of Italian immigration to America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
format	article
author	Anthony Antonucci
author_facet	Anthony Antonucci
author_sort	Anthony Antonucci
title	Darkest Italy Revisited: American Hyper-Nationalism and the Making of the “Criminal Immigrant”. From the Age of Thomas Jefferson to the Rise of Donald J. Trump, 1776-2018
title_short	Darkest Italy Revisited: American Hyper-Nationalism and the Making of the “Criminal Immigrant”. From the Age of Thomas Jefferson to the Rise of Donald J. Trump, 1776-2018
title_full	Darkest Italy Revisited: American Hyper-Nationalism and the Making of the “Criminal Immigrant”. From the Age of Thomas Jefferson to the Rise of Donald J. Trump, 1776-2018
title_fullStr	Darkest Italy Revisited: American Hyper-Nationalism and the Making of the “Criminal Immigrant”. From the Age of Thomas Jefferson to the Rise of Donald J. Trump, 1776-2018
title_full_unstemmed	Darkest Italy Revisited: American Hyper-Nationalism and the Making of the “Criminal Immigrant”. From the Age of Thomas Jefferson to the Rise of Donald J. Trump, 1776-2018
title_sort	darkest italy revisited: american hyper-nationalism and the making of the “criminal immigrant”. from the age of thomas jefferson to the rise of donald j. trump, 1776-2018
publisher	Università degli Studi di Torino
publishDate	2019
url	https://doaj.org/article/ad7a854b1cab4c199b082b2cabb096b8
work_keys_str_mv	AT anthonyantonucci darkestitalyrevisitedamericanhypernationalismandthemakingofthecriminalimmigrantfromtheageofthomasjeffersontotheriseofdonaldjtrump17762018
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Darkest Italy Revisited: American Hyper-Nationalism and the Making of the “Criminal Immigrant”. From the Age of Thomas Jefferson to the Rise of Donald J. Trump, 1776-2018

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