Moving ideas: the exile of Italian intellectuals in the United States (1930-1945)

di Renato Camurri
in Memoria e Ricerca n.s. 31 (2009), p. 43

In the history of the exile of European scientists and intellectuals towards the United States, the case of Italy is one of the less investigated. The author examines the causes of this delay in Italian historiography and analyses by comparison the general features of this experience of cultural migration. A central position in this scenario is held by Max Ascoli, and the essay describes the American career of this Jew from Ferrara, who arrived in the United States in 1931, and his role in the rescuing of Italian intellectuals escaping from Italy and Europe during the years of the Racial Laws, providing a first attempt at mapping their presence in the American academic and scientific world.