Publisher's Synopsis
The multifaceted nature of Sinatra's life, career, and persona, from skinny wise-ass Hoboken street punk to Chairman of the board, from civil rights activist to Reagan Republican, resonates strongly in the context of twentieth century American culture and with Italian Americans especially. Like DiMaggio, Sinatra played an enormously important symbolic role in how Italian immigrants and their children imagined themselves and their place in American society.;Evolving out of the hugely successful November 1998 conference at Hofstra University, this volume presents essays that engage the images and myths that surround. Sinatra's persona, and what they meant to Italian Americans and Sinatra's audience more broadly. Topics include gender and class vulnerability in his early career, crooners and gangsters in cross-over culture, the media's treatment of Sinatra's mother and her transgression of typical gender roles, Sinatra's promotion of himself as a jazz singer and his connection to African American culture, his civil rights activism, and the complicated nature of Sinatra's Italian American heritage (Dolly was from Genoa, not Sicily). Together the essays demonstrate the relationship between Sinatra and Italian American identity and culture.
