«IL PROGRESSO ITALO-AMERICANO» AND ITS PORTRAYAL OF ITALIAN-AMERICAN SERVICEMEN (1941-1945).

Between 1941 and 1945, «Il Progresso Italo-Americano» endeavored to highlight the contribution to victory in war by many Italian-Americans in the U.S. armed forces. Through the war years, the leading Italian-American newspaper in the United States worked as a conduit for the expression of the Italian-American community and its ethnic leaders. The celebration of their patriotism of young Italian-American service members by the newspaper was in fact part of a campaign for the community and its members to push for specific social and political issues of interest. The military service of young Italian-Americans was presented in the paper as evidence of the loyalty of their parents, their relatives, and older Italian immigrants, presented as quintessentially «American» at a time when their allegiance to the nation had been put into question. The treatment of Italian-American service members by «Il Progresso Italo-Americano» evolved further, evidencing new and more ambitious goals by the Italian-American community once suspicion of Italian-Americans' disloyalty abated by late 1942. By focusing on the Italian campaign between 1943 and 1945 and describing Italian-Americans' heroism on the battlefield and their fraternity with the Italian population on the pages of «Il Progresso Italo-Americano», the Italian-American community and its ethnic leaders worked to push for greater recognition of Italian-Americans in the United States, more lenient treatment of Italy by the Allies, and generous postwar reconstruction aid for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]