Knowledge, What Is It Good For? Italian/American Leadership in the Twenty-First Century
by Anthony Julian Tamburri
Anthony Julian Tamburri’s Knowledge, What Is It Good For? provides a detailed and systematic examination of Italian/American leadership today, whether that leadership arose through consensus or self-appointment. The various chapters describe the key issues at hand, which overall reflect a lack of knowledge about the history of Italians and their descendants in the United States. Through the critique of these issues, Tamburri emphasizes the need for solutions to remedy these gaps. This book is a follow-up to Tamburri’s A Politics of [Self-]Omission: The Italian/American Challenge in a Post-George Floyd Age (2022), which offered a first look at influential individuals and leaders of non-scholarly Italian/American organizations.
Praise for Anthony Julian Tamburri’s Knowledge, What Is It Good For?
“Scholar Anthony J. Tamburri has written a tour de force, questioning the persistent and unfortunate mythologization of Italian-American culture and the public perception of what it actually means to be Italian-American. With a clear-eyed and straightforward approach, Tamburri exhorts us to educate ourselves (and others) about the realities of ethnicity, going beyond the well-worn and frequently insulting tropes of Italian-American identity. Asking the fundamental question ‘Who are we?’ is the entry point for an overdue reconceptualization of the identity of a people.”
—Dr. Michelle Reale, Author of Volta: An Italian-American Reckoning with Race
“Tamburri has no trouble saying what must be said, especially at a time when Italian-American culture has been threatened by the dubious distinction that comes from some of its own, those opportunists of today whom he compares to the carpetbaggers and scallywags from the post–Civil War era. Tamburri’s dedication to speaking truth to power enables him to take no prisoners when setting the Italian-American historical and cultural record straight. There is no public intellectual more engaged or passionate about helping us all better understand the role that Italian-American ethnicity plays in being a citizen of the United States’ past, present, and future. Knowledge, What Is It Good For? comes from a life spent learning, teaching, and leading—the best foundation for the creation of new knowledge.”
—Dr. Fred L. Gardaphé, Distinguished Professor of English & Italian American Studies, Queens College, CUNY
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Italian/American History and Culture: Moving Forward
2. What Can the Italian/American Community Learn Today from Leonard Covello’s Writings of Yesteryear?
3. Symbolizing Christopher Columbus? Reflections on Columbus and Italian Americans
4. Italian Americans and African Americans 50 Years Later: What Might We Do?
5. Notions on Carpetbaggers and Scallywags
6. Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
About the Author
Anthony Julian Tamburri is Distinguished Professor of European Languages and Literatures and Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of Queens College, The City University of New York. Concentrating on cinema, literature, and semiotics, he is the author of twenty books and more than 130 essays and book chapters, and he has edited over thirty-five volumes.
ISBN 978-0-914386-90-2
$21.95 | Paperback | 132 pages
Pub. date: December 1, 2025
