Despite their twin positions as two of North America's most iconic
Italian neighborhoods, South Philly and Toronto's Little Italy have
functioned in dramatically different ways since World War II. Inviting
readers into the churches, homes, and businesses at the heart of these
communities, Staying Italian reveals that daily experience in each
enclave created two distinct, yet still Italian, ethnicities.
As Philadelphia struggled with deindustrialization, Jordan Stanger-Ross
shows, Italian ethnicity in South Philly remained closely linked with
preserving turf and marking boundaries. Toronto's thriving Little Italy,
on the other hand, drew Italians together from across the wider region.
These distinctive ethnic enclaves, Stanger-Ross argues, were shaped by
each city's response to suburbanization, segregation, and economic
restructuring. By situating malleable ethnic bonds in the context of
political economy and racial dynamics, he offers a fresh perspective on
the potential of local environments to shape individual identities and
social experience.