This book examines the lives of immigrant women from Northern Italy leaving poverty and oppression in their native country. Most readers are unaware that Southern Italians dominate the literature on the Italian American experience. Although Northern Italians were the first to leave Italy around the time of unification, their food and culture is often overlooked. It is the tsunami of Southern Italians, fleeing miseria that portrayed a group of immigrants for the American people.
Accounts of women's lives are based on oral histories and other research in both coal and coper mining camps. The reader will see the difficulties women faced and how they were the emotional heart of their families. Another aspect of the book is how labor unions were able to improve living for miners against the resistance of owners. Certainly, these early Italians were not greeted with open arms and had to survive prejudice and discrimination that they and their children faced.