| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 142 words from this article are provided below; about 395 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Merchants, Midwives, and Laboring Women: Italian Migrants in Urban America. By Diane C. Vecchio. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. x, 130 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-252-03039-7.)

Diane C. Vecchio's Merchants, Midwives, and Laboring Women is a succinct comparative study of Italian immigrants in Endicott, New York, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Vecchio contributes to a growing scholarship on female migration and transnationalism by offering a nuanced reading of the ways women negotiated wage work and family life. Using gender analysis, the author makes convincing arguments and shows that Italian women were not merely wives, daughters, and mothers who followed male kin, they were also labor migrants who made economic choices accordingly. Their choices to migrate were informed by wage-earning experiences in Italy and opportunities available in the United States. Italian women sought work—whether unskilled or skilled—that would accommodate family demands.

. . .

There are about 395 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.