Typologies for a New Perspective on the Italian-American Body Politic. Presenting The Oral History Archive.

Politics and government represent the missing piece of Italian-American studies, and one that we need to put back in place as rapidly as possible. While there exist a few historical and biographical accounts of Italian-American politicians, very little study has been produced by students of social sciences about how they operate. One of the reasons for this is that very little primary sources exist for scholars to examine. By founding the Oral History Archive, we at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute have started to fill this gap. This short essay presents the main activity of the first 5 year of the Oral History Archive under my direction.