Books published by Teneo Press

In this volume attesting to the Italian American influence on the United States, nine professors of Italian American studies and a curator of an ethnic museum provide original essays on the Italian American experience, using the theme bridges to Italy and bonds to America. Drawing from a wide variety of primary sources, such as census tracts, local directories, diaries, voting records, newspaper accounts, personal interviews and scholarly and polemical books and articles, the authors show how Italian Americans adapted, through work, prejudice, strife, and advancement, to the social and political life in America while still retaining an element of Italianita. Italian Americans were key components in the early years of jazz history in the 1920s and 1930s. This study adds some balance to the development of jazz by tracing the bonds that Italian Americans formed with Black musicians and their pioneering use of the guitar and violin. An obvious example of the theme of this book is a study of Italian prisoners of World War II, who were transported to the United States and settled in a camp in Texas. The author shows how they helped farmers by their work and how artists among them helped decorate a local church with paintings and murals. A comparison of the Italian and Mexican immigration to the United States shows the similarity and differences of these two groups over time. An examination of the proposition that Mexicans are like Italians is examined in detail. A bibliographical study of the "southern question" in Italian history shows the explosive forces that erupted during and after Italian unification. Italians and Italian Americans are still debating whether this incorporation of the Italian south into the kingdom of Italy was detrimental to the people who lived there and contributed to the massive emigration that followed. This study is an outgrowth of a desire by scholars to honor the passing of Professor Salvatore Mondello, coauthor of the national bestseller The Italian Americans. One of a few historians of Italian American immigration who appeared on the scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s he approached the subject with enthusiasm, passion, and a relentless search for relevant material marked by digging into primary sources, rooting out individuals who had lived through the immigrant experience and pouring over the contemporary accounts found in newspapers and magazines. Sal was one of the first to see the important link between railroads and Italian American settlements. He saw that the rail lines accelerated the Italians' movement beyond the large cities in the coastal areas. They used the railroads as the means to establish new lives in many urban and rural communities across the country.

The earthquake that struck the Messina Straits on December 28, 1908, was Europe's most powerful catastrophe in modern times. It claimed the lives of approximately 200,000 people, including some American diplomats and tourists. This book provides important insight into many aspects of the calamity and its subsequent impact. It also lends us some perspective on more recent natural disasters, such as the Indonesian tsunami of 2004 Historian Salvatore LaGumina describes the remarkable responses of various nations and people that was an impressive display of cooperation and brotherhood among competing nations. This study constitutes the first comprehensive volume that specifically explores the extensive and admirable role played by the United States in aiding Italy in the wake of the distressful time. It is an important book that should be of interest to the general public and to people in many fields, including philanthropy, Italian American studies, military/naval history, Italian history, disaster studies, gilded age history, twentieth-century America.

"Lizzie Borden Took an Axe, Or Did She?" is a collection of essays, written by a teacher and former prosecutor's detective, that explore various interesting questions that have virtually remained unexplained for more than 100 years.

This reader introduces Japanese journalism and print media in Japan, focusing on Japanese newspapers and the journalism that produces it. The chapters present research that has either focused on journalistic practice and product as research topic or has used journalism and newspapers as an information source in social science research. In this sense, the contents both describe and evaluate Japanese journalism and its newspapers, while also highlighting the contribution such research has made to the field of Japanese Studies. At a broader level, the contents offer exploratory viewpoints, outline methodological approaches, and present empirical case studies, highlighting not only how journalistic practice and the news it produces constitute a meaningful research area, but also how use of journalism and the newspaper as source can contribute to research across a range of diverse themes.

"Gold as refined by fire" is both the meaning of the word "Brenau" and a phrase that could encapsulate the very history of this institution. Since Brenau's modest origins as a women's college in 1878, generations of Brenau students and faculty members have overcome many trials by fire to forge what is today a distinctive university. Brenau was the first women's college in Georgia-if not the Deep South-to pioneer novel degree programs in fields like domestic science and business, to compete in intercollegiate athletics, to count courses in fine arts as electives, and to establish student government. Brenau was also among the last women's colleges to secure regional accreditation and to racially desegregate. This book's description of these feats and flaws and how Brenau students fashioned and embraced rules (governing everything from attendance to smoking to interacting with men) and college traditions (such as festivals, pageants, and freshmen initiation rites) brings Brenau's history to life just as does the account of things unique to Brenau (such as its sororities, secret societies, campus buildings, and lore). Organized not around periods of time but around themes important in higher education (such as academics, athletics, rules, etc.), The History of Brenau University, 1878-2013, departs in an engaging way from the traditional format of institutional histories. Using Brenau as a case study, this book also explores the formal and informal processes of negotiation between college students and college officials to create the collegiate experience. Examining this process shows how students-and not just the faculty-influence the history of a college.