The Liberty Lady that lights everything. America of Sacco and Vanzetti between illusion and disenchantment

Abstract

After a short introduction on the methodology applied and a historical background (e.g. References to the migration flows in modern times and to the first great exodus from the Post-Unification Italy), this essay is then split into different paragraphs, which are classified by topic, instead of being arranged in chronological order. The most relevant ones are Opposing Worlds: the Public Sphere (Italy and the USA, institutions, economy and government politics), Opposing Worlds: the Private Sphere (families, communities, culture and religion), The Tiredness of Being (the labour market and the conditions of migrants); The Power of Being (the political and social commitment and the struggles), and If Freedom is Relative (dismay, disappointment and anger). As for the last paragraph, Prejudice and Racism, I have analysed the case of Sacco and Vanzetti, not just as a representation of parallel biographies, but rather by framing it within the social, political and cultural environments of the United States during the 1920s (the period ranging between the two world wars and the Crash of 1929) and the situation in Italy at that time, with the rise of Fascism.