Una Storia Segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment During World War II

Lawrence DiStasi

Heyday Books, 2001 - History - 327 pages

It is a little-known fact that in California during World War II, Italian Americans were subjected to an 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew, searches of their homes, seizure of their property, and exclusion from prohibited zones along the coast. In a collection of essays, Una Storia Segreta brings together the voices of the Italian American community and experts in the field, including personal stories by survivors and their children, letters from internment camps, news clips, photographs, and cartoons. A project of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program.

About the author

Lawrence DiStasi is an editor, writer, and instructor at UC Berkeley Extension's Fall Freshman Program and has been the project director of the traveling exhibit Una Storia Segreta: When Italian Americans Were 'Enemy Aliens', since 1994. He is author of Mal Occhio: The Underside of Vision (North Point Press, 1981) and Dream Streets: The Big Book of Italian American Culture (Harper & Row, 1989). He is president of the American Italian Historical Association's Western Regional Chapter.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Una Storia Segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment During World War II
• Editor: Lawrence DiStasi
• Contributor: Lawrence DiStasi
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Heyday Books, 2001
• ISBN: 1890771406, 9781890771409
• Length: 327 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century; History / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / European American Studies; Social Science / Minority Studies