“It is a duty they owe to America and to their race”: The Order Sons of Italy in America, Romanità , and the Remaking of Ethnic Identity During the 1930s

Abstract This article presents a reexamination of the relationship between Italian communities in the United States and fascism from the late 1920s to the outbreak of the Second World War. This study challenges the prevailing view, as articulated in previous research, that fascism among Italian Americans was primarily a manifestation of revanchist nationalism. The objective is to elucidate the precise influence that Fascist ideology exerted on Italian Americans between the two world wars. The argument is that by extending the examination beyond the dissolution of the Fascist League of North America in 1929, significant inquiries pertaining to the reception of fascism among Italian ethnic organizations that were autonomous from the Fascist regime can be addressed. This article demonstrates that during its period of greatest popularity, Fascist ideology, particularly in its colonial and racial overtones, became an integral part of the Order Sons of Italy in America's ideology through a transatlantic re-elaboration. In particular, the article examines how the Fascist ideal of Romanità helped Italian Americans justify Italian colonial campaigns in Ethiopia and embrace an idea of Western unity that redeemed their migratory past at the expense of African and Jewish Americans in the aftermath of the implementation of harsh immigration restriction measures.