Staying Italian: Urban Change and Ethnic Life in Postwar Toronto and Philadelphia (Historical Studies of Urban America)

Despite their twin positions as two of North America’s most iconic Italian neighborhoods, South Philly and Toronto’s Little Italy have functioned in dramatically different ways since World War II. Inviting readers into the churches, homes, and businesses at the heart of these communities, Staying Italian reveals that daily experience in each enclave created two distinct, yet still Italian, ethnicities. As Philadelphia struggled with deindustrialization, Jordan Stanger-Ross shows, Italian ethnicity in South Philly remained closely linked with preserving turf and marking boundaries. Toronto’s thriving Little Italy, on the other hand, drew Italians together from across the wider region. These distinctive ethnic enclaves, Stanger-Ross argues, were shaped by each city’s response to suburbanization, segregation, and economic restructuring. By situating malleable ethnic bonds in the context of political economy and racial dynamics, he offers a fresh perspective on the potential of local environments to shape individual identities and social experience. Contents ......Page 6 List of Illustrations ......Page 8 Acknowledgments ......Page 12 Introduction ......Page 16 1. Cities Apart: Toronto and Philadelphia after World War II ......Page 24 2. Italian Markets: Real Estate Exchange and Ethnic Community ......Page 48 3. Invitations and Boundaries: Patterns of Religious Participation ......Page 74 4. Courtship, Marriage, and the Geography of Intimacy ......Page 106 5. Breaking the Mold: Work and Postwar Ethnicity ......Page 126 Conclusion ......Page 150 Notes ......Page 160 Index ......Page 200 A comparison of the social dynamics prevailing in two distinctive Italian communities, in Philadelphia and Toronto, this text explores why the character of each community has come to be so unlike the other.