Such Hardworking People

Iacovetta examines the changes many had to face during the transition from peasant worker in an under-developed, rural economy to wage-earner in an urban, industrial society. Their experiences in Canada, she reveals, were shaped by class, gender, and ethnicity as well as familial responsibilities, government policies, and racism. In addition to conducting numerous interviews, Iacovetta has drawn on recent scholarship in immigration, family, labour studies, oral history, and women's history. Although both women and men struggled and were exploited, Iacovetta shows that they found innovative ways to recreate cherished rituals and customs from their homeland and managed to derive a sense of dignity and honour from the labours they performed.

"Written from a feminist perspective, Such Hardworking People is a social history weaving together the many strands of personal storytelling, anecdotal evidence, newspaper reports, even the occasional quotation from the dehumanizing language of immigration contracts calling for "bulk" orders of immigrants, preferably not from southern Italy ... For the children of these immigrants Such Hardworking People is a timely reminder of the source of their wealth. For the general reader, Iacovetta has written a thoroughly researched and fascinating story of the historical interplay between communal values and personal success." Damiano Pietropaolo, Globe and Mail. "A scholarly but approachable study of how immigrant Italians put down their roots in postwar Toronto, lovingly written by a feminist daughter of those 'hardworking people.'" Ted Mumford, Toronto Life "Iacovetta has unearthed much that has been relatively unknown. A scholar of growing respect, she has written more extensively than anyone else on a hitherto neglected aspect of the Italian immigrant experience ... Existing documents have not only been exhaustively studied but are supplemented with interviews which give the work life and colour." Kenneth Bagnell, author of Canadese: A Portrait of Italian Canadians. "Perceptive and sensitive ... a very good fusion of Canadian immigration, ethnic, labour, and women's history ... Iacovetta has skilfully integrated information from over seventy interviews; the most revealing comments come from these." Don Avery, Department of History, University of Western Ontario.