1 Bortone Giuseppe, Sicilia in Armi, Livorno, Belforte, 1918.

2 “l’eroismo, il sacrificio, la compostezza dell’anima siciliana”, Lombardo Pellegrino Ettore, “Prefazione”, in Bortone Giuseppe, Sicilia in Armi, op. cit., p. 11 (my translation).

3 Even a foreign observer like the Anglo-German writer Helen Zimmern (1846-1934) in the book New Italy, published in London the same year of Sicilia in Armi and written with the Italian writer Antonio Agresti (1866-1927), pointed out that in Southern Italy and Sicily everything was “almost entirely given up to somewhat primitive agriculture, the people, though hard-working, were extremely poor and ignorant, at the mercy of the great landed proprietors, and still suffering from the effects of long centuries of misrule at the hands of the Church and the Bourbons, and their condition made the solution of economic questions one of urgent necessity.” See Zimmern Helen, Agresti Antonio, New Italy, London, Constable and Co., 1918, p. 17.

4 For the Libyan war as an important prelude to Italian Great War, see Gooch John, The Italian Army and the First World War, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 38-50.

5 Astuto Giuseppe, “Saggio Introduttivo”, in Astuto Giuseppe, Nicosia Aldo (eds.), La Sicilia e il Mezzogiorno. Dall’impresa libica alla Grande Guerra, Napoli, Editoriale Scientifica, 2017, p. 26.

6 “nuovi uomini e nuove competenze, aria respirabile, al di sopra di egoismi, di trucchi di coalizioni insidiose, di valorizzazioni di nullità e di boicottaggio di valori”, Lombardo Pellegrino Ettore, “Prefazione”, op. cit., p. 11 (my translation).

7 “in questa immane tragedia, ci sentiamo invasi dal raccapriccio di fronte ai milioni di morti [...] chi sa guardare le cose da un altro punto di vista, [...] oltre il piccolo episodio ed oltre l’ora fugace, per abbracciare l’insieme ed allungare lo sguardo nel passato e nel futuro, trova che son pur grandi, e maggiori ancora saranno, i vantaggi che questa guerra ha prodotto”, Bortone Giuseppe, Sicilia in Armi, op. cit., pp. 15-16 (my translation).

8 “come se si fosse trattato di liberare un lembo di Sicilia, come se, attraverso i monti ed il mare, fossero arrivati fin laggiù il lamento, l’imprecazione, l’invocazione calda e pietosa dei fratelli irredenti”, Ibidem, p. 47 (my translation).

9 The war had not actually resolved these issues but, on the contrary, it had aggravated the Southern Question (questione meridionale). The military expenditures and the huge resources allocated to industrial sectors had radically altered the relations between agriculture and industry, between town and country, between North and South. See Barone Giuseppe, “Introduzione”, in Barone Giuseppe (ed.), Catania e la Grande Guerra. Storia, protagonisti, rappresentazioni, Acireale, Bonanno Editore, 2014, p 11.

10 Only three pages in Ganci Massimo, “La Sicilia contemporanea”, in Storia della Sicilia, vol. viii, Napoli, Società Editrice Storia di Napoli e del Mezzogiorno continentale e della Sicilia, 1977, pp. 221-223; Aymard Maurice, Giarrizzo Giuseppe (eds.), Storia d’Italia. Le regioni dall’unità a oggi. La Sicilia, Torino, Einaudi, 1987 does not contain any parts concerning the First World War; more space in a seminal and forerunner analysis Renda Francesco (ed.), Storia della Sicilia dal 1860 al 1970, vol. II. Dalla caduta della Destra al fascismo, Palermo, Sellerio, 1985, pp. 305-330; few mentions in Di Matteo Salvo, Storia della Sicilia. Dalla preistoria ai nostri giorni, Palermo, Edizioni Arbor, 2007, pp. 526-530, that focuses only on the post-war period and on the worsening of social tensions; three pages in Mangiameli Rosario, La Sicilia dalla prima guerra mondiale alla caduta del fascismo, in Benigno Francesco, Giarrizzo Giuseppe (eds.), Storia della Sicilia vol. 2. Dal Seicento a oggi, Rome-Bari, Laterza, 2003, pp. 151-153; a very short essay about refugees and prisoners in Sicily in 1916 has appeared in the recent miscellaneous volume titled Storia mondiale della Sicilia (Mondial History of Sicily). See Poidomani Giancarlo, Terra di profughi e prigionieri, in Barone Giuseppe (ed.), Storia mondiale della Sicilia, Rome-Bari, Laterza, 2018, pp. 427-430.

11 At the center of the investigations were mainly the provinces of Catania, Messina and Ragusa. Unfortunately, there are no in-depth historical reflections on the western area of Sicily, especially on the capital, Palermo. On Sicily and the Great War see: Brady Sean, “From Peacetime to Wartime: The Sicilian Province of Catania and Italian Intervention in the Great War”, in Miller Alisa, Rowe Laura, Kitchen James (eds.), Other Combatants, Other Fronts: Competing Histories of the First World War, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011, pp. 3-28; Id., Sicily at War. The Province of Catania and the Experience of the Great War, 1914-1922, PhD Thesis, Dublin, Trinity College, 2014; Barone Giuseppe (ed.), Catania e la Grande Guerra…, op. cit.; Id., Gli Iblei nella Grande Guerra, Turin, Cliomedia Officina Editore, 2015; Baglio Antonio, Battaglia Rosario, Caminiti Luciana et al., “Da queste sponde sicule che stan di fronte a Scilla”. Messina e la Grande Guerra, Messina, Istituto di Studi Storici Gaetano Salvemini, 2015; Poidomani Giancarlo, Lutti e memorie dei Siciliani nella Grande Guerra, Catania, Prova d’autore, 2015; Id., “La Sicilia contro la guerra. Le manifestazioni per la pace e il ‘disfattismo’ (19151918)”, Giornale di storia contemporanea, I, 2015, pp. 107-133; Id., “La Grande Guerra dei Siciliani: il lutto e la memoria”, Nuova Rivista Storica, vol. 101, n. 3, 2017, pp. 1017-1041; Baris Tommaso, “Sicilia”, in Cammarano Fulvio (ed.), Abbasso la guerra! Neutralisti in piazza alla vigilia della Prima guerra mondiale in Italia, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2015; pp. 589-599. Astuto Giuseppe, Nicosia Aldo (eds.), La Sicilia e il Mezzogiorno..., op. cit.; Bonomo Margherita, Poidomani Giancarlo, “L’Italia chiamò”. La Sicilia e la grande guerra, Rome, Carocci, 2017; Riccio Elena, Verri Carlo, Siciliani al fronte. Lettere dalla Grande Guerra, Palermo, Istituto Poligrafico Europeo, 2017.

12 For an accurate general view about the Italian War Front see Labanca Nicola, “The Italian Front”, in Winter Jay (ed.), The Cambridge History of The First World War, vol. 1: Global War, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 266-296.

13 Mondini Marco, La guerra italiana. Partire, raccontare, tornare. 1914-18, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014, p. 73.

14 Bonomo Margherita, Poidomani Giancarlo, “L’Italia chiamò”, op. cit., p. 173.

15 Barone Giuseppe, “Ristrutturazione e crisi del blocco agrario. Dai fasci siciliani al primo dopoguerra”, in Barone Giuseppe, Lupo Salvatore, Palidda Rita et al., Potere e società in Sicilia nella crisi dello Stato liberale, Catania, Pellicanolibri, 1977, pp. 3-146.

16 Soltész József, “Hungarian prisoners of war on the island of Sicily in World War I”, Szülőföldünk, n°21-22, 1994; La Ferla Fabio, La Ferla Vincenzo, “L’ex-campo di concentramento di Vittoria”, Studi Storico-Militari, Rome, Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, 1999, pp. 424-557; Francione Giancarlo, Juhász Dezső, Cappella ungherese: storia, memoria e mito di un monumento che parla di pace, Comune di Vittoria, 2004; Iid., Hungarian Chapel in Sicily, Budapest, Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum, 2017; Keglovich Rita, “Prigionieri di guerra Ungheresi in Sicilia dopo la Prima Guerra Mondiale”, Verbum, VII/I, 2005, pp. 293-301.

17 Only in the last two years of the war, more than 12 torpedoings happened in the Strait. See Caruso Vincenzo, Messina nella Prima Guerra Mondiale, Messina, Edas, 2008, pp. 25-51.

18 Fabre Daniel (ed.), Écritures ordinaires, Paris, Bpi-Centre Pompidou, 1993; Id., Par écrit. Ethnologie des écritures quotidiennes, Paris, Ministère de la Culture-MSH, 1997; Lyons Martyn (ed.), Ordinary Writings, Personal Narratives. Writing Practices in 19^th and early 20^th century Europe, Bern, Peter Lang, 2007; Id., The Writing Culture of Ordinary People in Europe, c.1860-1920, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013; Caffarena Fabio, Scritture non comuni. Una fonte per la storia contemporanea, Milano, Unicopli, 2016.

19 Gibelli Antonio, L’officina della guerra. La Grande Guerra e le trasformazioni del mondo mentale, Turin, Bollati Boringhieri, 2007 [1^st ed. 1991]. See also the seminal work by Procacci Giovanna, Soldati e prigionieri italiani nella Grande guerra: con una raccolta di lettere inedite, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2016 [1^st ed. 1993].

20 For instance: Caffarena Fabio, Lettere dalla grande guerra. Scritture del quotidiano, monumenti della memoria, fonti per la storia. Il caso italiano, Milano, Unicopli, 2005; Id., “Armed with pen and paper. Soldiers writings beween story, memory and the history of the Great War”, in Piredda Patrizia (ed.), The Great War in Italy. Representation and interpretation, Leicester, Trombador, 2013, pp. 167-177; Gibelli Antonio, La guerra grande. Storie di gente comune, Rome-Bari, Laterza, 2014; Id., La grande guerra degli italiani. 1915-1918, Milano, Bur, 2014; Antonelli Quinto, Storia intima della Grande Guerra. Lettere, diari e memorie dei soldati al fronte, Rome, Donzelli, 2019 [1^st ed. 2014]; Stiaccini Carlo, “Scrivere dal fronte”, in Labanca Nicola (ed.), Dizionario storico della Prima guerra mondiale, Rome-Bari, Laterza, 2014, pp. 301-310; Id., “War Letters (Italy)” in Daniel Ute, Gatrell Peter, Janz Oliver et al. (eds.), 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, Freie Universität Berlin, 2015 [http://dx.doi.org/10.15463/ie1418.10643, 20/04/2020]; Maranesi Nicola (ed.), Avanti sempre. Emozioni e ricordi della guerra di trincea 1915-1918, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014; Todero Fabio, “‘L’aria è tutta un fremito’: diari, memorie e lettere dalla Grande guerra”, in Cammarata Enrico (ed.), Nati per morire. La Grande guerra dalle testimonianze personali ai luoghi della memoria, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2015; pp. 101-125. Mondini Marco, La guerra italiana…, op. cit.; Caffarena Fabio, Murzilli Nancy (eds.), In guerra con le parole. Il primo conflitto mondiale dalle testimonianze scritte alla memoria multimediale, Trento, Fondazione Museo Storico del Trentino, 2018.

21 “i veri detentori della verità esistenziale”. Bianchi Bruna, “Il trauma della modernità. Le nevrosi di guerra nella storiografia contemporanea”, in Scartabellati Andrea (ed.), Dalle trincee al manicomio. Esperienza bellica di matti e psichiatri nella Grande Guerra, Turin, Marco Valerio, 2008, p. 12 (my translation).

22 Lyons Martyn, The Writing Culture of Ordinary People in Europe…, op. cit., p. 24.

23 Gibelli Antonio, La guerra grande…, op. cit., p. 27.

24 Caffarena Fabio, Lettere dalla Grande guerra…, op. cit., p. 24.

25 “Mescolare le parole di questi ufficiali di trincea ai tanti scritti zoppicanti dei fanti-contadini è quindi opportuno per creare una miscela di voci e di storie eterogenee che meglio rappresentino la sfaccettata comunità del fronte”, Ibidem, p. 99 (my translation).

26 Wilcox Vanda, Morale and the Italian Army during the First World War, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp. 15-16.

27 Ministero di agricoltura, industria e commercio, Direzione generale della statistica e del lavoro, Ufficio del censimento, Censimento della popolazione del Regno d’Italia al 10 giugno 1911, vol. iii, L’alfabetismo della popolazione presente, Rome, Tipografia nazionale di G. Bertero e C., 1914, p 230.

28 Brady Sean, Sicily at War…, op. cit., p. 79.

29 “essere messa in relazione al diverso coinvolgimento della gente comune ad una storia tanto luttuosa e dolorosa quanto disgiunta dai luoghi dell’esistenza quotidiana”, Ibidem, p. 255 (my translation).

30 Caffarena Fabio, Scritture non comuni..., op. cit., p. 31.

31 Caffarena Fabio, Lettere dalla Grande guerra..., op. cit., pp. 249-253.

32 Lyons Martyn, The Writing Culture of Ordinary People in Europe…, op. cit., p. 245.

33 Russo Matteo, Lettere dal fronte (1916-1917), Catania, cuecm, 1993.

34 Pieve S. Stefano, ADN, MP/00, Rabito Vincenzo, Fontanazza; Id., Terra matta, ed. by Santangelo Evelina, Ricci Luca, Turin, Einaudi, 2007. For this relevant case see “The Story of Terra matta”, ed. by Moss David, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, vol. 19, 3/2014.

35 The only known exception is the Società Siciliana per la Storia Patria of Palermo that holds several letters written by Sicilian combatants that were sent by their families in reply to a public call made by the Institute in 1917 to gather the most patriotic writings of Sicilian people at the front. See Riccio Elena, Verri Carlo, Siciliani al fronte…, op. cit. More recently, in 2015 the website Archivio degli Iblei, a digital and virtual archive, was born with the aim of offering thematic routes on the history of the southeastern part of Sicily, particularly on the province of Ragusa. One of its sections is dedicated to the First World War [http://www.archiviodegliiblei.it/index.php?it/658/oltre, 20/04/2020].

36 Farge Arlette, The Allure of the Archives, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2013, p. 102.

37 Annuario Statistico dell’emigrazione italiana dal 1876 al 1925, Rome, edizione del Commissariato Generale dell’Emigrazione, 1926 and Saija Marcello, Cordaro Federica, “L’emigrazione siciliana nelle Americhe e la Grande Guerra”, in Astuto Giuseppe, Nicosia Aldo (eds.), La Sicilia e il Mezzogiorno..., op. cit., p. 137. The phenomenon had its maximum between 1901 and 1913: in these twelve years, 1,063,734 Sicilians left the island. The vast majority (991,176) went to the United States and partly to Argentina and Brazil. It was a colossal exodus, a genuine social collapse for a population that in 1911 counted 3,672,00 inhabitants: over a quarter of the islanders left their land for an unknown fate. See Di Matteo Salvo, Storia della Sicilia..., op. cit., p. 525.

38 Pretelli Matteo, “Italians and Italian Americans, 1870-1940”, in Barkan Elliot Robert (ed.), Immigrants in American History. Arrival, Adaption, and Integration, vol. 1, Santa Barbara, abc-clio, 2013, pp. 437-448.

39 “Oggi stesso mi ha mandato a chiamare il Sindaco, e non puoi immaginare, l’impressione che ho provato quando me disse che cera arrivato un avviso, ove gli comunicava che tu, ti eri dato prigioneri volontario”, ACS, Tribunale Supremo Militare, Atti Diversi 1911-1928, b.4, fasc.1 (my translation).

40 Forcella Enzo, Monticone Alberto, Plotone di esecuzione. I processi della Prima Guerra Mondiale, Rome-Bari, Laterza, 2014 [1^st ed. 1972], p. XV.

41 “tu sei venuto volontario dall’america senza nessuno che ti obbligava a farlo. con tanta fede e coraggio per venire a servire la nostra cara patria, travolta in questa guerra”, ACS, Tribunale Supremo Militare, Atti Diversi 1911-1928, b.4, fasc.1 (my translation).

42 “Il Sindaco me disse che non mi tocca più la paga che mi davano, che il sussidio mi veni levato! Poi la genti mi a dinchino la testa di chiaccheri, me dicono che tu non puoi più tornare in Italia”, Ibidem (my translation).

43 “fare comprendere ai superiori del tuo Reggimento [...] la tua innoccenza, e il tuo amore verso la nostra patria”, Ibid. (my translation).

44 “il fatto tale e quale com’è”, ACS, Tribunale Supremo Militare, Atti Diversi 1911-1928, b.4, fasc.5 (my translation).

45 “Nella carta d’accusa che hanno messo alla nostra porta dichiara che all’alba del 6 giugno tu abbandonavi il tuo posto di vedetta e volontariamente ti davi. Sarai giudicato in contumacia. Vedi dunque che il caso è molto grave. Noi non possiamo fare niente. Devi difenderti tu stesso”, Ibidem (my translation).

46 Staiti Claudio, “‘Vedi dunque che il caso è molto grave’. Lettere di familiari a sospettati di diserzione nella Grande Guerra: tre esempi ‘siciliani’”, Humanities, V/9, University of Messina, 2016; p. 127-144.

47 Vecoli Rudolph J., “Negli Stati Uniti”, in Bevilacqua Piero, De Clementi Andreina, Franzina Emilio (eds.), Storia dell’emigrazione italiana, vol. II, Rome, Donzelli, 2002, p. 71.

48 Only about 100,000 Italians left the United States to answer Italy’s call. See Luconi Stefano, “Le comunità italoamericane degli Stati Uniti e la prima guerra mondiale”, Dimensioni e Problemi della ricerca storica, 1, Sapienza University of Rome, 2015, pp. 93-94; Franzina Emilio, “Emigranti ed emigrati in America davanti al primo conflitto mondiale (1914-1918)” in Fiorentino Daniele, Sanfilippo Matteo (eds.), Stati Uniti e Italia nel nuovo scenario internazionale 1898-1918, Rome, Gangemi Editore, 2012, pp. 150-151; Id., Al caleidoscopio della Gran Guerra. Vetrini di donne, di canti e di emigranti (1914-1918), Isernia, Cosmo Iannone Editore, 2017, pp. 143-176. On the Italian Americans and First World War see also Ventresco Fiorello B., “Loyalty and dissent. Italian reservist in America during World War I”, Italian Americana, iv, 1978, 1, pp. 93-122 and Staiti Claudio, “Due Patrie, due lealtà: gli italoamericani e la Grande guerra”, in Pompejano Daniele, Panella Lina, Villani Angela (eds.), Cittadinanze trasversali, Padua, Cedam, 2020, pp. 231-249.

49 Choate Mark, Emigrant Nation: The Making of Italy Abroad, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2002, p. 212.

50 Foerster Robert F., The Italian Emigration of our times, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1919, pp. 398-399.

51 Staiti Claudio, “Il terremoto di Messina del 1908 nei giornali italiani di New York”, Altreitalie, n°58, 2019; p. 5-38.

52 Speranza Gino C., “The ‘Americani’ in Italy at War”, The Outlook, April 12, 1916.

53 Ibidem.

54 L’Era Nuova, August 28, 1915, p. 2, quoted and translated from Italian in Ventresco F. B., “Loyalty and dissent. Italian reservist in America during World War I”, art. cit., pp. 114-115.

55 “un tempo di scrittura più introspettivo, in cui è possibile in un certo senso guardarsi attorno, cogliere sfumature, rielaborare considerazioni”, Caffarena Fabio, Lettere dalla Grande guerra, op. cit., p. 77 (my translation).

56 Englund Peter, Stridens skönhet och sorg. Första världskriget i 212 korta kapitel, Stockholm, Atlantis, 2008; appeared in English in 2011 and in Italian in 2014.

57 D’Aquila Vincenzo, Io, pacifista in trincea. Un italoamericano nella Grande guerra, ed. and trans. by Staiti Claudio, preface by Franzina Emilio, Rome, Donzelli, 2019. Copies of the original 1931 book, which never had a second edition, are held in more than fifty American libraries (mostly linked to Universities) and, in a few examples, also in Europe (for instance, at the Kongelige Bibliotek in Aarhus, Denmark, and at the British Library and at the Imperial War Museum in London). The original book never arrived in Italy: neither during the years of Fascism (maybe for its anti-militarism), nor subsequently, and in fact it is not catalogued by any Italian library.

58 D’Aquila Vincenzo, Bodyguard Unseen. A True Autobiography, New York, Richard Smith Inc., 1931, pp. 16-17, 12.

59 Ibidem, p. 18.

60 Ibid., p. 17.

61 New York County Supreme Court, Naturalization Petition Index, 1907-1924, vol. 158, p. 216, Certificate of Naturalization n. 482818.

62 D’Aquila Vincenzo, Bodyguard Unseen..., op. cit., p. 111.

63 Ibidem, p. 5.

64 Ibid., pp. 75-79.

65 Ibid., pp. 79-80.

66 Ibid., p. 79.

67 Ibid., pp. 192-202.

68 Ibid., pp. 189-190.

69 “fatuità sentimentale, attività delirante a contenuto assurdo con prevalenti idee di grandezza” (my translation). See AOPS, s. cartelle cliniche, fasc.6558.

70 “strano delirio di grandezza e di persecuzione connesso ai fatti della guerra, cui aveva preso parte” (my translation). See AOPS, s. cartelle cliniche, fasc.6558. For a comparison between D’Aquila’s memoir and the official medical records see Staiti Claudio, “L’‘odissea di guerra e pazzia’ di Vincenzo D’Aquila. Un pacifista in trincea”, in De Santis Dario (ed.), Guerra e scienze della mente in Italia nella prima metà del Novecento, Rome, Aracne Editrice, 2019, pp. 187-211. On D’Aquila’s case see also Staiti Claudio, “Vicende di un percorso: da volontario di guerra a pacifista”, in Orazi Stefano (ed.), Dopo la Grande Guerra. Dalle distruzioni materiali alle ripercussioni fisiche, morali e sociali. Atti del Convegno di studi (Pesaro, 9 novembre 2019), Urbino, Istituto per la storia del Risorgimento italiano - Comitato di Pesaro e Urbino, Argalia, 2020, pp. 63-87.

71 AOPS, s. cartelle cliniche, fasc.6558.

72 “We’re not going to be such simpletons as to make a martyr of you.” See D’Aquila Vincenzo, Bodyguard Unseen..., op. cit., p. 268.

73 Ibidem, p. 250.

74 Ibid.

75 Ibid., p. 249.

76 See, for instance, these works published in the years following Paris Treaties: Jefferson Charles E., What the War has taught us, New York, Fleming H. Revell Company, 1919; Ecob James H., “Why did not the Church prevent the war?”, The Advocate of Peace, August 8, 1918, pp. 237-239; Merrill William P., Christian Internationalism, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1919; Irwin Will, The Next War. An Appeal to Common Sense, New York, Dutton & Co., 1921; Id., Christ or Mars?, New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1923; Page Kirby, The Sword or the Cross. Which should be the weapon of the Christian militant?, Chicago, The Christian Century Press, 1921; Vanderlip Frank, What next in Europe, New York, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1922; Palmer Frederick, The folly of Nations, New York, Dodd Mead, 1921; Angell Norman, The fruits of Victory. A sequel to the Great Illusion, New York, The Century Co., 1921; Kerr Philip H., Curtis Lionel, The prevention of war, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1923; Eddy Sherwood, Page Kirby, The abolition of war, New York, George H. Doran Company, 1924; Gibson Harry B., War abolition, New York, Robson & Adee, 1925.

77 In the same year of D’Aquila’s memoir see, for instance: Chiozza Money Leo G., Can war be averted?, London, Thornton Butterworth Ltd., 1931; What would be the character of a new war? Enquiry organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, London, P. S. King & Son, 1931; Wingfield-Stratford Esmé C., They that take the sword, New York, W. Morrow & Co., 1931.

78 Pischedda Costantino, “Review Essay: War and Peace in a Hidden Gem of Italian-American Literature”, Italian Americana, xxxviii, 1, 2020, p. 81.

79 The Cincinnati Enquirer, October 17, 1931, p. 7.

80 D’Aquila was probably influenced also by American novelist John Dos Passos (1896-1970). Both based on the author’s first-hand experience as an ambulance driver at the French-German front, his first novel, mostly ignored by critics, One Man’s Initiation: 1917, was first published in London in 1920 and then in 1922 in New York; while his second novel, Three Soldiers, was published in 1921 in New York after many rejections from publishers and censorship squabbles. Both of them seek to demonstrate the cruelty and senselessness of war and how it can affect the choices of individuals. Some similarities between D’Aquila’s memoir and Dos Pasoss’s war fiction can be seen especially in the novel Three Soldiers. Here one of the three main characters is an Italian American, the naive and ambitious Dan Fuselli, while the protagonist, John Andrews, a young New York composer, gets to reject the uniform and become a deserter. For the experience of Dos Passos (and Hemingway) of the war life in Italy see Pozzato Paolo, “The Harvard Ambulance Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos and the Italian Front”, Over There in Italy. L’Italia e l’intervento americano nella Grande guerra, Quaderno Società Italiana di Storia Militare, 2018, pp. 401-412.

81 Letter from Vincenzo D’Aquila to prof. J.W. Garner, October 3, 1931. I want to thank prof. John Paul Russo (University of Miami) for sending me this precious letter, found by chance attached to a copy of D’Aquila’s Bodyguard Unseen requested through an interlibrary-loan from the Garner Memorial Library at University of Mississippi.

82 As emerges since from the few lines taken from the first letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians – “But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong.” (1 Cor 1, 27) – that he puts as an epigraph at the beginning of his book, D’Aquila feels one of the “weak” and “fools” to whom God has reserved the privilege to be able to point the way of truth to the world. To support his path of “prophetic initiation” is his faith, which derives, essentially, from reading and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. The biblical text (especially the New Testament), not surprisingly, is mentioned several times, more or less explicitly, in the memoir, especially in the third part.

83 D’Aquila Vincenzo, Bodyguard Unseen…, op. cit., pp. 13, 34, 59, 104, 235.

84 Ibidem, p. 258.

85 Ibid., p. 267.

86 Ibid., pp. 267-268.

87 Ibid., pp. 27-28.

88 Ibid., pp. 26-28.

89 Ibid., pp. 26-27.

90 Ibid., p. 29.

91 Ibid., pp. 139-140.

92 Ibid., p. 160.

93 After he returned to the United States, in 1919 D’Aquila got married with Delia, a girl from Abruzzo with whom he had two daughters. He worked first as tobacco exporter and then as publisher. He died in New York on April 26, 1975. See Staiti Claudio, “Introduzione”, in D’Aquila Vincenzo, Io, pacifista in trincea..., op. cit., p. 28.

94 This was, for instance, the case of France, as evidenced by the postcards and letters written by Italians living there to their families preserved at La Contemporaine in Nanterre. See for instance: La Contemporaine, Nanterre, F delta 2125/06: Correspondance de soldats (1914-1919), Lettres en langues étrangères, Lettres de Mario Rossetti, soldat français à sa mère, 14 janvier-2 mai 1915.

95 Pastori Gianluca, “Gli Italiani d’America e l’AEF”, Over There in Italy. L’Italia e l’intervento americano nella Grande guerra, op. cit., pp. 151-164. On the participation of Italians of America in the AEF see also Sterba Christopher M., Good Americans. Italian and Jewish Immigrants during the First World War, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003 and Laskin David, The long way home. An American journey from Ellis Island to the Great War, New York, HarperCollins, 2010.

96 Ventresco Fiorello B., “Loyalty and dissent. Italian reservist in America during World War I”, art. cit., p. 111.

97 Luconi Stefano, “Military Nationalism and the Re-elaboration of Ethnicity. The Italian Americans and the World War One”, in Vellucci Sabrina, Francellini Carla (eds.), Re-mapping Italian America. Places, Cultures, Identities, New York, Bordighera Press, 2018, pp. 318-336.

98 Saija Marcello, Cordaro Federica, “L’emigrazione siciliana nelle Americhe e la Grande Guerra”, op. cit., pp. 141-146.

99 Wilcox Vanda, Morale and the Italian Army…, op. cit., p. 60.

100 Speranza Gino C., “Heart’s Allegiance”, The Outlook, May 15, 1918.

101 To prove the “heart’s allegiance” of the Italian American soldiers, Speranza reported two illustrative examples. The first one was the case of a letter showed to him by an “oldish peasent woman” in which her boy communicated her that he was in the American Aviation Service, glad to give his life “for liberty and to abolish the German slavery and destroy those unnatural enemies who would like to be the padroni of the world”. The second was the case of a soldier patient met at the American Hospital in Florence named Jimmy. A “swarthy immigrant from Basilicata who had worked in Santa Fé Railroad” whose brother was instead an American soldier: “I got a bullet in me leg, for Italy’s sake; now I hope me brother will get hurt too for America. Then it will all be squared up”. See Speranza Gino C., “Heart’s Allegiance”, The Outlook, May 15, 1918.

102 Among the Italians, even the Congressman Fiorello La Guardia, the future mayor of New York City and a hero to the many Italian Americans who resided there, resigned his position in Congress to join the American Expeditionary Forces to show that a man who put his constituents into the war was willing to go as well. It was a show of solidarity with the armed forces and in part a way to show that Italian Americans could be just as patriotic as Americans. See La Guardia Fiorello H., The Making of an Insurgent: An Autobiography: 1882-1919, Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott Company, 1948, p. 160.

103 CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.1, f.4, Drawings referring to the Italo-Turkish War, 1909-1912.

104 CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.24. ff.274-275.

105 Jansen Axel, “Cultural Elite or Political Vanguard? American Volunteers Join the European War, 1914-1917”, The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 17, 4/2018, p. 646.

106 Vecoli Rudolph J., “Negli Stati Uniti”, op. cit., p. 71. On the influence of the patriotic discourse surrounding World War I on the identity of Italian newcomers see also Luconi Stefano, “The Rhetoric of Patriotism and the Nationalization of Italian Immigrants in the United States during World War I”, in Della Putta Johnston Marina, Mito e realtà della Grande Guerra, Venezia, Marsilio, 2020, pp. 135-149.

107 “Carissimo Papa, Abbio ricevuto due lettere de Rosalia, e sono contendi di sentiri chi sieti tutti di perfeta saluti e cosi vi asecuro de me. Ora fa quasi cinque mesi chi io sono partuto di la mia amata terra e casa, ma speramo che noi pottremo essere assiemi in poco tempo. Ancora noi non sappemo si noi resttiamo qui o retorneremo all’America. Non essere surpriso si io qualchi giorni mi trovasi a casa. Speramo che noi saremo assiemi a tabola per la festa di Natali, ma como voi sapette che li soldati non sono mai sicuro quel sarano l’ordeni, stanno solamenti in speranza. Abbio vutto la bella opportunita di vedere la viechia Europa e vedere qualchi picoli paesi qui in Francia. [...] Allora avevo non altro di scrivervi e speramo di essere assiemi per le feste, con tanti saluti e bacci almiei amici e famiglia con tanti abbraci. to figlio”. See CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.8, f.58, Letters to his parents, November 25, 1918.

108 On Pisciotta’s case see also Keefer Scott, Adventure and Proving Patriotism in the American Expeditionary Forces. Corporal Pisciotta’s Story, in WWI Centenary. Continuations and Beginnings [http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/?p=4000, 20/04/2020]. About the centennial of First World War, students at New York St. John’s University used photographs from Alex Pisciotta Papers to create a website providing resources for school teachers. See Pascullo Joseph, Burgess Tanya, Podias Roseann et al., “WWI Resources: Teachers and Students for Success!” Children’s Librarians Assisting History Teachers [http://wwiresources.yolasite.com, 20/04/2020]

109 CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.8, f.58, Letters to his parents, July 29, 1918.

110 Ibidem, August 6, 1918.

111 Ibid., August 29, 1918.

112 Ibid., August 17, 1918.

113 Ibid., August 12, 1918.

114 Ibid.

115 Ibid.

116 Ibid., August 26, 1918.

117 Ibid., October 7, 1918.

118 CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.8, f.59, Letters to his parents, October 23, 1918.

119 CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.8, f.58, Letters to his parents, August 29, 1918.

120 Ibidem, October 15, 1918.

121 CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.8, f.59, Letters to his parents, October 23, 1918.

122 CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.8, f.58, Letters to his parents, September 27, 1918.

123 Ibidem, October 15, 1918.

124 CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.8, f.59, Letters to his parents, October 20, 1918.

125 CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.8, f.58, Letters to his parents, October 10, 1918. 126 CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.8, f.59, Letters to his parents, October 23, 1918. 127 Ibidem, October 31, 1918.

126 CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.8, f.58, Letters to his parents, November 11, 1918.

127 See at least: Kennedy David M., Over Here: The First World War and American Society, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1980; Capozzola Christopher, Uncle Sam Wants You. World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010; Richard, Rubin, The Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.

128 CMS, Alex Pisciotta Papers, b.8, f.59, Letters to his parents, November 18, 1918.

129 Ibidem, December 11, 1918.

130 Ibid., November 27, 1918.

131 Ibid., December 2, 1918.

132 Ibid., December 16, 1918.

133 After the First World War, Alex Pisciotta received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1923. He married Mae McIntyre and had three children, two sons and a daughter. During his long career, he served as Assistant US Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, from 1926 to 1929. In 1935 he was appointed to the position of Secretary of the New York City Department of Licenses by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. In 1942, after being appointed to position of New York City Magistrate, he was called to active duty in World War II and during the Korean War in 1950. He was elected mayor of Lake Grove, Long Island, several times, from 1968 to 1981. He died on January 24, 1985. After he passed away, his family donated his papers to the Center for Migration Studies of New York, a thinktank and advocacy group run by the Scalabrinians. This organization contains a large archive of immigration to the United States, with a particular focus on Italian immigration. See CMS, Guide to the Alex Pisciotta Papers, New York, 2014 [http://www.cmsny.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/cms_038.pdf, 20/04/2020] and Brown Mary E., “Reconnecting with the Center for Migration Studies”, Italian American Review, VII, 1, 2017, pp. 72-76.

134 Paternostro Giuseppe, “Per un Archivio siciliano delle scritture popolari”, Dialoghi Mediterranei, n°41, 2020 [http://www.istitutoeuroarabo.it/DM/per-un-archivio-siciliano-delle-scritture-popolari, 20/04/2020].