Subtitle: The Vanished First Ward
Author: Michael Immerso
Regular Price: $23.00
Subject: New Jersey
Cloth ISBN 0-8135-2417-2
Paperback ISBN 0-8135-2757-0
Pages: 172 pp., 7x10, 180 b&w illus.
Description: Uses vintage photographs, interview, and archival material to tell the story of a remarkable American neighborhood, Newark's old First Ward.

Praise for Newark's Little Italy

"My grandmother lived on Garside Street in Newark's Little Italy. I'm a big fan of the book."--David Chase, creator and executive producer of The Sopranos

Winner of the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance Book Award!

"It's a story that twines the American dreams of immigrants, postwar follies of urban planners, and appreciation of what was lost in the rush to the suburbs."-Asbury Park Press

"Re-creates a visual history of an era and a way of life long lost."-Hackensack Sunday Record

"The publication . . . has sparked a wave of pride among Italian Americans."-North Jersey Newspapers

Michael Immerso traces the history of the First Ward from the arrival of the first Italian in the 1870s until 1953 when the district was uprooted to make way for urban renewal. Richly illustrated with photographs culled from the albums and shoeboxes in the private collections of hundreds of former First Ward families from all across the United States, the book documents the evolution of the district from a small immigrant quarter into a complex Italian-American neighborhood that thrived during the first half of this century.

Michael Immerso is a writer, publicist, and social activist who frequently serves as a media consultant for nonprofit organizations.