Customer Reviews

Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel (Italian and Italian American Studies (Palgrave Hardcover))

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In my opinion, this book portrays a unique and interesting perspective of the political and socioeconomic conditions in Twentieth Century USA, up to and including World War II. It exemplifies how the grab for power not only distorts the ideals of organizations, but more importantly of political and socioeconomic systems (i.e. Communism, Socialism and even our Capitalistic Democracy). It depicts how an Anarchist is created. For me, this book was intellectually stimulating.

The author, Nunzio Pernicone, eloquently fills out many of the facts for which I had been searching regarding the years leading up to the time when my family left their home town of Sulmona in the Abruzzi Region of Italy and the times of their first and second generations in America. Actually, I recall that my father related the legend of Carlo Tresca to me when I was a young man.

This solidly academic historical account is built around the life and death of Carlo Tresca who was a unique, dynamic and extraordinarily complex character. Tresca was a true individual that, perhaps, I could more easily understand because of my Italian heritage and my Sulmona roots. This book shows how Tresca developed as a "Rebel", an "Agitator", a "Radical" and an "Anarchist" by tirelessly fighting for the dignity and rights of the hard working immigrants that built this country. Tresca used his toughness, as well as his oratory and literary skills to resist the corrupt authorities of his time (including Capitalists, Socialists, Fascists and Stalinists) who sought to control and exploit the lives of hard working people. He passionately strove to realize the socioeconomic system that best served the ideal of a country "of the people, by the people and for the people". Rejecting the concept of working through the system and "playing ball" with the establishment, Tresca became an anarchist and was labeled a radical. I saw him more as a heroic figure - a fighter for Liberty and an advocate for many of the hopeful immigrants who were greeted by the Statue of Liberty and instead found exploitation, mistreatment and oppression from the sweat shops of New York City, the mills in New Jersey and Massachusetts, the company towns in the coal mine regions of Pennsylvania. He associated with some of the most interesting activists of his time including Clarence Darrow, Upton Sinclair and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.

Reading the book has left me thinking about the best socioeconomic system to effectively deliver the "liberty and justice for all" that Tresca sought. I only wish that I could bring Tresca back and have dinner with him at his favorite Italian restaurant in NYC to discuss the evolution of America in the Twentieth Century. We would talk about how the influence of large corporations and wealthy capitalists on our country has only grown larger. He'd be disgusted over the diminution of labor unions, the loss of jobs and how the difference in wealth between the upper class and the middle class has widened. I'd tell him how the U.S. Supreme Court has enabled the influence of big money on politics. What would he think about the consolidation of the news media now owned by large corporations? He'd get even more agitated to hear about the total government deregulation of industries, particularly the financial industry. He would probably declare that we've become an Oligarchy. My guess is that Tresca would really fire up! If you have any spark of rebellion within you, this book is a "must read".

I have read several essays as well as an earlier extraordinary book by Prof. Pernicone. This biography, the product of many years of research, is a magnificent piece of accessible scholarship. In its pages Tresca comes alive in all his dimensions and full context, proof that Pernicone is the Tresca scholar par excellence.
Tresca wa "the real deal" as an anarchist; he took on capitalists and clergymen, fascists and mafiosi,as well as stalinists. A true rebel in our increasingly conformist age.
A terrific read.

Carlo Tresca was a secular humanist who courageously fought for the rights and dignity of early 20th century workers in America. An anarchist, he opposed all who would subjugate and oppress susceptible immigrants of all nationalities. He opposed fascists, capitalists, communists, monarchists, and papists because he saw through the specious ideologies through which they worked.
This book is very well written and provides a concise review of the times leading up to the New Deal and World War II. The reader will be introduced to many characters that impacted American history either because they worked with Tresca or against him.
A very worthwhile read.

As the 76 year old grandson of Carlo Tresca I obviously have a positive bias but having just finished reading this encylopedic biography with its extensive footnootes documenting much of the history presented this is clearly Prof. Nunzio Pernicone's magnum opus and the definitive biography of Carlo Tresca. As an American history buff, I think this book is in the class of some of David McCullough's work and presents a detailed documentation of early 20th century American political and labor history.