Becoming Loyal Americans: The Movement to Reclassify Italian Alien Enemies During the Second World War (Critical Studies in Italian Migrations)

A critical read for exploring the discursive links to the origins of fascist and antifascist rhetoric in the United States Becoming Loyal Americans is a study of the Italian American movement during the Second World War to reclassify not only the status of alien enemy but also the perception of the ethnic community as singularly loyal to the United States.The book argues that the anti-fascist actors at the helm of this movement, although seeking liberative ends to lift discriminatory wartime legislation and defeat Benito Mussolini, reproduced fascist political myths to realize movement success.These political myths, in turn, were appropriated by the Roosevelt administration to secure the ethnic bloc's continued wartime support.Cucchiara considers the implications of this discourse's legacy for the ethnic community and the American body politic, as these political myths, no matter how reworked to fit an emancipatory framework, were carriers of narrative elements steeped in a history of