What Can Be Done to Help Them?: The Italian Saint Raphael Society, 1887-1923

Walk the halls of Ellis Island with the immigrants and those seeking to help them. Historian Edward Stibili has produced the definitive account of the Saint Raphael Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants. This pioneering organization was founded to smooth the way for a people caught between a Europe that had no place for them and an America that welcomed them as workers, but offered them little help to find their place in the New World. The story of the Saint Raphael Society is an essential part of the experience of an earlier great wave of immigration to the United States; it covers the period from 1887 to 1923. The research encompasses the stories of these working-class migrants and progressive thinkers in the Catholic hierarchy. It is crucial reading for anyone concerned with the Italian-American experience, Catholic social action, international migration, and social reform.