Similarly, the account of so startling an event as a quadruple murder in Denver by four Italians during 1875 had fascinated local newspaper readers. Again and again in this book, the author tends to minimize the consequences of discrimination. Apparently, Handlin's book concludes that immigrants were exploited, mistreated, charged high interest rates, and relegated to marginal work opportunities. Rolle's theme seems to be that Italians actually fared very well in America, and although I'm sure there's truth in that, Rolle's tendency to dismiss troubles no doubt does a disservice to those who were lynched or mistreated. Writing American history has got to be tough.
Nobody ever seems to like anybody else's approach to it.
Rolle's insistence that the immigrants' hard work was met with just rewards, and that their eventual destiny was success, is rather heartening. This book, however, was originally written in 1968, and we can only hope that no one today would have the audacity to claim that Italians were unworthy. Although Rolle doesn't avoid discussing discrimination, he certainly dodges the complexities of it. He reveals that many Italians disliked the South where they were hired en masse because it was believed that white workers were more productive than black workers. With a certain naive pride, the author shows how Italians really did work harder, sometimes planting and picking by lantern light.