Portable natures : environmental visions, urban practices, migratory flows. Agriculture and the Italian experience in north American cities, 1880-1940

Abstract

This dissertation explores Italian migration to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century through the lens of environmental history and puts gardening at the center of its analysis. First, gardening here is considered as a resilient practice of adjustment to new urban environments which helped migrants to overcome the shock of migration while providing them with food and in some cases, an entry point into the US economy. Secondly, gardening is recognized as a tool used by both US and Italian governments and authorities to manage migratory flows through the creation of agricultural settlements populated by urban migrants. In this dissertation, I have focused on Italian migrants as a case study for two main reasons. First, from Europe, it was the Italian population that contributed the most to the migratory phenomenon, and Italy said farewell to around 26 million emigrants between the years 1898-1914. This short period represented the peak of the Italian diaspora. Second, the study of migrant adjustment practices connected to nature is a recent concern, and a comprehensive study on the gardening practices of Italians in the US is still missing. The first part of the dissertation analyzes the practice of urban gardening made by Italians who emigrated to the United States. Gardening, for them, was as a resilient practice of adjustment to their new urban environments. At the turn of the twentieth century US cities underwent a series of modernization and sanitation changes, which obliterated the presence of rural elements, such as agriculture and animals. This dissertation explored how, for immigrant communities, including Italians, this tension continued well into the twentieth century. Furthermore, it will be unveiled how this process of obliteration of urban agriculture during the decades of modernization was often contested and strictly connected with the politics of urban food provisioning. The second part of the dissertation explores how institutions of both the US and Italy observed, perceived, and attempted to manage migratory flows. It shows how US Institutions dealt with the Italian practices on North American urban soil and how social reformers and urban planners dealt with Italian agricultural background and migrants’ knowledges and practices in urban contexts. Furthermore, it will be introduced the term Agricultural Diplomacy to describe the complex interactions that occurred between a variety of actors, from diplomats to politicians to agronomists and landowners, of both the US and Italy, on the management of Italian immigrants with the common aim to establishing agricultural colonies with Italian migrants in the US South. There, gardening emerges as the environment of Italianness which had a different meaning for the different actors involved in this relationship. Addressing this aspect uncovers unexplored avenues of the global history of Italy and its expansionist ambitions.