From Teaching Italian to Practicing Citizenship: Sources and Further Reading

Oct 22, 2026 · @Vanessa

These are the sources quoted or shown in the lecture From Teaching Italian to Practicing Citizenship: Leonard Covello and the Community School in East Harlem, followed by the scholarship it draws on. Where a digital copy or a DOI exists, the title links to it.

Primary sources

Archives

• Rita Morgan Papers. Special Collections, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. Includes the My Community Work Book used at Benjamin Franklin High School (undated, probably c. 1948) and the English Department annual report of June 1948.

Printed sources and memoirs

• Cordasco, Francesco, ed. The Italian Community and Its Language in the United States: The Annual Reports of the Italian Teachers Association. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1975. The annual reports, 1921–22 to 1938–39, were written by Mario E. Cosenza, president of the Association.
• Cosenza, Mario E. Thirteenth Annual Report: School Year 1933–1934. Italian Teachers Association, October 1934. Reprinted in Cordasco, ed., The Italian Community and Its Language, 211–45.
• Covello, Leonard. “News from the Field: School Year 1933–1934.” Part II of Cosenza, Thirteenth Annual Report(1934). Reprinted in Cordasco, ed., The Italian Community and Its Language, 237–45.
• Covello, Leonard, with Guido D’Agostino. The Heart Is the Teacher. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958.
• Mangione, Jerre. Mount Allegro. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943. Reissued as Mount Allegro: A Memoir of Italian American Life. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1998.
• Marshall, James. “How the Schools Can Help to Solve the Second Generation Problem.” Interpreter Releases 12, no. 22 (May 13, 1935): 194–196. Foreign Language Information Service, New York. Text of an address given on May 8, 1935.

Film, map and court case

• The Making of an American. Silent film, 1920. Directed by Guy Hedlund; produced by the Worcester Film Corporation for the Connecticut Department of Americanization. Copy preserved at Northeast Historic Film; added to the National Film Registry in 2005.
• Ohman Map Co. Map of the Borough of Manhattan and Part of the Bronx Showing Location and Extent of Racial Colonies. New York, c. 1920. New York Public Library, Digital Collections. Commercial version of the maps prepared in 1919 for the New York State Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate Seditious Activities (Lusk Committee).
• Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923).
• A Better Tomorrow. Short film, c. 1945. Directed by Alexander Hammid; U.S. Office of War Information, Overseas Branch, The American Scene no. 8; Leonard Covello credited as producer. English and Italian versions. Filmed in New York, including Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Leonard Covello Films.

Language and citizenship in Italy

• De Mauro, Tullio. Storia linguistica dell’Italia unita. Bari: Laterza, 1963.
• Manzoni, Alessandro. I promessi sposi. Definitive edition, Milan, 1840–1842. The exchange between Renzo and don Abbondio is in chapter II.
• Milani, Lorenzo. Tutte le opere. Edited by Federico Ruozzi, Anna Carfora, Valentina Oldano and Sergio Tanzarella, under the direction of Alberto Melloni. 2 vols. Milan: Mondadori, 2017 (I Meridiani).
• Roghi, Vanessa. La lettera sovversiva. Da don Milani a De Mauro, il potere delle parole. Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2017.

Italian Americans, language and the schools

• Carnevale, Nancy C. A New Language, A New World: Italian Immigrants in the United States, 1890–1945. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009.
• Fucilla, Joseph G. The Teaching of Italian in the United States: A Documented History. New Brunswick, NJ: American Association of Teachers of Italian, 1967.
• Lange, Dorothea, and Paul S. Taylor. An American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939.
• Meyer, Gerald. Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician, 1902–1954. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.
• Pretelli, Matteo. L’emigrazione italiana negli Stati Uniti. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2011.
• Pretelli, Matteo. “Italian Americans, Education, and Italian Language: 1880–1921.” Quaderni d’italianistica 38, no. 1 (2017): 61–83.
• Zimmerman, Jonathan. “Ethnics against Ethnicity: European Immigrants and Foreign-Language Instruction, 1890–1940.” Journal of American History 88, no. 4 (2002): 1383–1404.

Leonard Covello and the community school

• Cagnolati, Antonella, Donna Chirico, Carmen Petruzzi and Anthony J. Tamburri, eds. Educazione migrante tra passato, presente e futuro. Saggi in onore di Leonard Covello. Bologna: Clueb, 2024.
• Cagnolati, Antonella, and Carmen Petruzzi. La pedagogia di Leonard Covello. Scuola, democrazia e cittadinanza nella New York degli italoamericani. Rome: Aracne, 2023.
• Cantore, Renato. Harlem, Italia. Covello e Marcantonio, due visionari nel ghetto dei migranti. Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2022.
• Covello, Leonard. The Social Background of the Italo-American School Child: A Study of the Southern Italian Family Mores and Their Effect on the School Situation in Italy and America. Leiden: Brill, 1967. Based on his 1944 doctoral dissertation at New York University.
• Petruzzi, Carmen. La scuola degli italoamericani. Storia e pratiche inclusive negli articoli di Leonard Covello (1887–1982). Rome: TAB, 2022.

Carmen Petruzzi on Italian American education

Carmen Petruzzi (Università di Milano-Bicocca) has written extensively on Leonard Covello, Angelo Patri and the education of Italian Americans in New York. Her work on these subjects, newest first, compiled from the Bicocca institutional repository (BOA).

Books and edited volumes

• Lo scoglio muto e solitario dell’esilio. Educazione informale e dissenso italoamericano negli Stati Uniti (1900–1945). Bari: Progedit, 2026.
• Saperi sovversivi. Educazione e ribellione nelle pagine de «Il Martello» (1918). Ferrara: Volta la Carta, 2025.
• Due maestri a colloquio. Giuseppe Lombardo Radice e Angelo Patri. Rome: Anicia, 2024.
• With A. Cagnolati, D. Chirico and A. J. Tamburri, eds. Educazione migrante tra passato, presente e futuro. Saggi in onore di Leonard Covello. Bologna: Clueb, 2024.
• With A. Cagnolati. La pedagogia di Leonard Covello. Scuola, democrazia e cittadinanza nella New York degli italoamericani. Rome: Aracne, 2023.
• Frammenti di vita italoamericana. Riflessioni sull’autobiografia di Leonard Covello (1887–1982). Florence: Franco Cesati, 2023.
• La scuola degli italoamericani. Storia e pratiche inclusive negli articoli di Leonard Covello (1887–1982). Rome: Tab, 2022.

Articles and chapters

2026

• With A. Mariuzzo and L. Salvarani. “Educazione e migrazioni nel Nord America (1837–1983).” Rivista di Storia dell’Educazione 13, no. 1 (2026): 3–7.

2025

• “Fonti visive per la scuola progressista. Analisi quantitativa dei disegni della P.S. 174 diretta da Garibaldi Lapolla (1938–1941).” Annali online della didattica e della formazione docente 17, no. 30 (2025): 116–134.
• “Italy-United States A/R. Pinocchio’s journey (1881–1948).” In Pinocchio in America, 13–83. Rome: Tab, 2025. With a foreword by Petruzzi, 9–12.
• “Between Chronicle and Novel: Charity Women of New York and Italian Children of the Great Migration (1880–1908).” In Donne fuori dai confini, edited by C. Petruzzi and M. Mascarell García, 135–146. Madrid: Dykinson, 2025.
• “Sobre la promoción de la cultura estadounidense. El papel de las agencias filantrópicas en la educación de los jóvenes inmigrantes de Nueva York (1880–1910).” In El compromiso social de la historia de la educación. Libro de actas. XXIII Coloquio Internacional de Historia de la Educación (SEDHE), 378–383. Palma: IRIE, 2025.
• With A. Cagnolati. “Between Public History of Education and identity dissemination: the role of Italian American Museums.” In El compromiso social de la historia de la educación (SEDHE), 384–388. Palma: IRIE, 2025.

2024

• “Filantrope, volontarie e street boys. Educazione formale e informale per i piccoli italiani a New York tra cronaca e narrativa (1880–1908).” Scholé 62, no. 2 (2024): 223–234.
• “Una scuola nuova a East Harlem. Questione sociale, organizzazione scolastica e rete comunitaria.” In Educazione migrante tra passato, presente e futuro, edited by A. Cagnolati, D. Chirico, C. Petruzzi and A. J. Tamburri, 149–163. Bologna: Clueb, 2024. With A. Cagnolati, “Prefazione,” 1–4.
• “Pinocchio oltreoceano: la versione inedita di un’emigrazione temporanea raccontata da Angelo Patri.” In E la regina morì… Ricordando Angela Articoni, edited by A. Cagnolati and C. Petruzzi, 511–530. Rome: Tab, 2024.

2023

• “East Harlem, da quartiere di frontiera a centro dell’Urban School degli anni Quaranta. Uno sguardo generale al lavoro di Leonard Covello.” Rivista di Storia dell’Educazione 10, no. 2 (2023): 61–66.
• “«Once upon a wartime…», a pedagogical lesson of Angelo Patri (1876–1965).” Educazione Interculturale 21, no. 1 (2023): 18–28.
• “Building peace in war time. Angelo Patri’s suggestions and education paths.” Metis 13, no. 1 (2023): 393–408.
• “Paradossi educativi nel Novecento. Lavoro e memoria di Giuseppe Prezzolini (1882–1982) tra Stati Uniti, Italia e Svizzera.” Historia y Memoria de la Educación 17 (2023): 293–318.
• “El «bien educado». Los estudios de Leonard Covello sobre la comunidad italoamericana de Nueva York (1900–1940).” In Tra carte e parole. I sentieri della ricerca storico-educativa nell’area mediterranea, edited by A. Cagnolati and T. Rabazas Romero, vol. 1, 109–123. Rome: Tab, 2023.
• “Nella «grande emigrazione». Infanzie diverse tra realtà e immaginario.” In Tra carte e parole, edited by A. Cagnolati and T. Rabazas Romero, vol. 2, 81–99. Rome: Tab, 2023.
• “My story di Gemma La Guardia Gluck. Un’autobiografia americana tra le due sponde dell’Oceano Atlantico.” In Mujeres y autoescrituras: recreaciones literarias en primera persona, edited by S. Velázquez-García and J. D. Sánchez, 127–136. Granada: Comares, 2023.
• With A. Cagnolati. “Preserving the heritage for future generations. The Italian American Museum Network in the United States.” In Il patrimonio storico-educativo come fonte per la Public History of Education, edited by A. Ascenzi, G. Bandini and C. Ghizzoni, 57–58. Macerata: EUM, 2023.

2022

• “L’impresa educativa di Leonard Covello (1887–1982) all’ombra della politica di riqualificazione di Fiorello La Guardia.” Nuova Secondaria Ricerca 10 (June 2022): 119–141.
• “Mission democratica nella scuola americana e multiculturale del XX secolo. Prospettive deweyane nella pedagogia di Leonard Covello.” Pedagogia e Vita, no. 3 (2022): 158–163.
• “La scuola-comunità di Leonard Covello. Visione, pedagogia e progetti di un italoamericano a New York.” In Pedagogías alternativas y educación en los márgenes a lo largo del siglo XX. XXI Coloquio de Historia de la Educación (SEDHE), edited by A. Payà Rico, 117–121. Valencia: Universitat de València, 2022.
• “How are we to keep the children healthy and happy […] while the world burns over their heads? Angelo Patri and the Wartime.” Personae 1, no. 1 (2022): 88–96.
• “Alien Bodies at Ellis Island. Cross-Cultural Pathways through Theatrical Performance in 1912.” Giornale Italiano di Educazione alla Salute, Sport e Didattica Inclusiva 6, no. 3 (2022): 1–8.

2021

• “La pedagogia di Leonard Covello, il Mista Professore che educò la comunità italiana di East Harlem tra gli anni Venti e Cinquanta.” Studium Educationis, no. 2 (2021): 113–121.

Fascism and the teaching of Italian in the United States

• Cannistraro, Philip V. Blackshirts in Little Italy: Italian Americans and Fascism, 1921–1929. West Lafayette, IN: Bordighera, 1999.
• Pretelli, Matteo. “Culture or Propaganda? Fascism and Italian Culture in the United States.” Studi Emigrazione 43, no. 161 (2006): 171–192.
• Pretelli, Matteo. Il fascismo e gli italiani all’estero. Bologna: Clueb, 2010.
• Pretelli, Matteo. La via fascista alla democrazia americana. Cultura e propaganda nelle comunità italo-americane. Viterbo: Sette Città, 2012.
• Salvemini, Gaetano. Italian Fascist Activities in the United States. Edited by Philip V. Cannistraro. New York: Jerome S. Ozer, 1977.

See also Luatti (2026), listed below.

Education and migration in North America (2026)

A special issue of Rivista di Storia dell’Educazione 13, no. 1 (2026), Firenze University Press, open access. The articles most relevant to the lecture:

• Isensee, Fanny. “Classifying Difference – Italian Immigrant Pupils in US City School Systems, 1880s to 1920s.” 43–53.
• Luatti, Lorenzo. “La controversia sui libri di testo fascisti negli Stati Uniti d’America (1934–1937).” 77–88.
• Mariuzzo, Andrea, Carmen Petruzzi and Luana Salvarani. “Educazione e migrazioni nel Nord America (1837–1983).” 3–7.
• Nicolella, Daniele. “Pedagogie sommerse: reti educative informali e resistenza culturale nelle Little Italies.” 55–64.
• Pretelli, Matteo. “‘Quinte colonne’ sui banchi? Per una storia dell’antiamericanismo straniero (o presunto tale) nelle scuole statunitensi.” 65–75.
• Ragazzoni, Mattia. “Written Italian in North American Diasporic Communities during the Great Emigration (1880–1920): Self-Study Italian-English Grammar Books.” 21–30.