Scienza e fede [Science and Faith]. Philadelphia: Social Printing Co., 1908.

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Title

Scienza e fede [Science and Faith]. Philadelphia: Social Printing Co., 1908.

Description

Barbato (b. 1856, Piana dei Greci, d. 1923, Milan) was a Sicilian medical doctor, socialist and politician, one of the national leaders of the Fasci Siciliani (Sicilian Leagues), a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration in 1891-1894, and perhaps was the ablest among them, according to Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm.

He was imprisoned in 1894 after trial, elected to the chamber of deputies while in prison (his election was annulled). His 12-year sentence aroused opposition in the U.S. among Italians, as well as in Italy. He was released after only about two years in prison. He was elected to Parliament several times, but always lived under the threat of the government or the Mafia.

Although there is no evidence of his having come to the U.S., Barbato also published articles in Il Proletario. In one such, he directed a biting diatribe at the American people for what he saw as its cowardliness and passivity:

"There is no form of violence on the part of the authorities which they do not submit to passively; one day an anarchist newspaper is suppressed; another day the entry [into the country] of an Italian socialist newspaper is prohibited; then the most elementary rights of workers are denied and it is declared a crime to boycott goods, until finally the reactionary instinct even assumes the defense of czarism. While a shopkeeper education makes this people practical and adapted more than we Europeans for the daily struggle for existence, it is opposed to the development of a civic conscience. The more evolved worker, he of the famous trade union, has only one dream, to become a millionaire with the aid of God and the robust fiber which he believes is his as a member of the greatest race in the world."

Il Proletario, September 25, 1908.

There is no firm evidence that he ever actually traveled to the U.S.

Creator

Dr. N[icola] Barbato

Publisher

Social Printing Co.

Date

1908

Format

21 x 12.5cm; 269 p.

Language

Italian

Citation

Dr. N[icola] Barbato, “Scienza e fede [Science and Faith]. Philadelphia: Social Printing Co., 1908.,” Italian-Language American Imprints: The Periconi Collection, accessed March 29, 2024, https://italianamericanimprints.omeka.net/items/show/123.

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