Paul Moses

An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York's Irish and Italians Paul Moses

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Biographical Note: Paul Moses is Professor of Journalism at Brooklyn College/CUNY and former city editor of Newsday, where he was the lead writer for a team that won the Pulitzer Prize. His book The Saint and the Sultan won the 2010 Catholic Press Association award for best history book. Review Quotes: "The masses of Italian immigrants who arrived in New York City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries found Irish Americans everywhere in charge: as cops and robbers, saints and sinners, and wary gatekeepers of nearly all the occupations the newcomers hoped to pursue. By Paul Moses s delightfully insightful, warm, and witty account, ethnic tribalism proved no match for enterprising immigrants who saw their opportunities and took them. From Paolo Vaccarelli who as Paul Kelly insinuated himself deep into the heart of the city s political and labor establishments before reclaiming his original identity to Francis Albert Sinatra, who far surpassed his Irish-American musical 'foreman' Tommy Dorsey, Italian-Americans forged a 'mixed marriage' with the Irish that transformed both communities."-James T. Fisher, author of "On the Irish Waterfront""Review Quotes: "Delivers nothing less than a revelation on every page: clashing cardinals and brawling bootblacks; torrid love affairs ignited on picket lines; distant revolutions launched, nurtured, and suppressed from New York tenements and parish halls. Unforgettable characters from two mighty tribes of New York, the Irish and the Italians, are woven into this astonishing, wonderful book by one of the city's greatest reporters. In Paul Moses's pitch-perfect prose, the human history of New York comes alive as never before. And not a moment too soon: the untold sagas and struggles of the Irish and the Italians, their journeys from rumbles to romance, are being lived again today and will be tomorrow by other newcomers."-Jim Dwyer, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnistReview Quotes: "Award-winning author and Brooklynite Paul Moses is back with a historic yet dazzling story on the complex relationship between New York's Irish and Italians."-"Brooklyn Eagle"Review Quotes: Delivers nothing less than a revelation on every page: clashing cardinals and brawling bootblacks; torrid love affairs ignited on picket lines; distant revolutions launched, nurtured, and suppressed from New York tenements and parish halls. Unforgettable characters from two mighty tribes of New York, the Irish and the Italians, are woven into this astonishing, wonderful book by one of the city's greatest reporters. In Paul Moses's pitch-perfect prose, the human history of New York comes alive as never before. And not a moment too soon: the untold sagas and struggles of the Irish and the Italians, their journeys from rumbles to romance, are being lived again today and will be tomorrow by other newcomers. -Jim Dwyer, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist"Review Quotes: "Even the future saint, an Italian, Mother Frances Cabrini, and the Irish Archbishop of New York, Michael Corrigan, argued and couldn't at first get along. The Irish and Italians here in America shared a common faith and hope, but, sometimes charity only came later! What a colorful chronicle of the spice, diversity, yet unity, of the Catholic community, and the magic of America."-Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan, Archbishop of New YorkReview Quotes: "A wonderful, important book. Paul Moses does a masterful job explaining the complex relationship between two ethnic groups that helped define New York City in the 19th and 20th centuries. With great research and a writer's touch, he tells a story that every New Yorker and would-be New Yorker needs to know."-Terry Golway, author of "The Irish in America""Review Quotes: "In this lively history of the clashes, compromises, and eventual bonding between two feisty immigrant groups, Moses looks at Irish and Italian expressions of religion, social customs, and family life; access to political power; competition for jobs; and cultural forces that shaped their images... A brisk, well-researched look at a significant part of New York's boisterous past."-"Kirkus Reviews""Review Quotes: "Enlightening and entertaining... Moses offers emblematic, often fascinating tales, including the 'Irish-Italian love story' of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Carlo Tresca, the 'spectacular achievements' of NYPD officer Joesph (Guiseppe) Petrosino, and Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby's relationship."-"Publishers Weekly"Review Quotes: "An Unlikely Union is an unlikely success. Moses weaves together the histories and struggles of New York s Irish and Italians across the past two centuries, offering fresh insights and fresh research. It is a vivid history of conflict, with many episodes that will be familiar to people whose families have lived some part of it; and then it turns into a romance mediated by food, religion, and burning proximity. It is a Shakespearean tale, with occasional episodes of Romeo and Juliet, but the overarching plot of Much Ado about Nothing, where the intense mutual distaste of the hero and heroine turns into an equally intense and enduring bond."-Robert Viscusi, general editor, American edition of "Italoamericana: The Literature of the Great Migration""Publisher Marketing: They came from the poorest parts of Ireland and Italy, and met as rivals on the sidewalks of New York. In the nineteenth century and for long after, the Irish and Italians fought in the Catholic Church, on the waterfront, at construction sites, and in the streets. Then they made peace through romance, marrying each other on a large scale in the years after World War II. An Unlikely Union unfolds the dramatic story of how two of America's largest ethnic groups learned to love and laugh with each other in the wake of decades of animosity. The vibrant cast of characters features saints such as Mother Frances X. Cabrini, who stood up to the Irish American archbishop of New York when he tried to send her back to Italy, and sinners like Al Capone, who left his Irish wife home the night he shot it out with Brooklyn's Irish mob. Also highlighted are the love affair between radical labor organizers Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Carlo Tresca; Italian American gangster Paul Kelly's alliance with Tammany's "Big Tim" Sullivan; hero detective Joseph Petrosino's struggle to be accepted in the Irish-run NYPD; and Frank Sinatra's competition with Bing Crosby to be the country's top male vocalist. In this engaging history of the Irish and Italians, veteran New York City journalist and professor Paul Moses offers an archetypal American story. At a time of renewed fear of immigrants, it demonstrates that Americans are able to absorb tremendous social change and conflict--and come out the better for it. Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2015 (EAN 9781479871308, Hardcover) Publishers Weekly 04/20/2015 (EAN 9781479871308, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Moses, Paul Paul Moses is Professor of Journalism at Brooklyn College/CUNY and former city editor of Newsday, where he was the lead writer for a team that won the Pulitzer Prize. His book The Saint and the Sultan won the 2010 Catholic Press Association award for best history book.