Written by a professor of sociology, Priest, Parish, and People studies the historical development and complex communal relationships that marked parish life in Philadelphia's “Little Italy” from incipient Italian immigration through the early 1930s. Centering the work around the evolution of St. Mary Magdalen dePazzi parish (founded 1853) and the work of its astute and zealous pastor, Antonio Isoleri (1845–1932, rector from 1870 to 1926), the author provides a significant micro-study not only of the cultural transformation of an important urban Italian community but also of its interaction with the political and religious fortunes of Catholicism in Italy and the United States. The dense but informative introduction and the epilogue detail the conscious combination of institutional, biographical, and sociological data that make the study unique.

After narrating in chapter 1 the development of the Italian Catholic community in early Philadelphia, including its brief experience of ecclesiastical interdiction, chapters 2 and 3 situate the development of the Philadelphia community, the increasing immigration, and the political-religious vision of Isoleri within the context of the Italian Risorgimento. Chapters 4 through 7 narrate the work of the priest and the response of the community in developing a “shared identity” around the institutions of church and school, the parish's sacramental and devotional life, and an extensive social outreach system particularly directed toward saving the poor and vagabond “slave children” and handing on the faith. The next chapter (8) begins a detailed exposition of the forces of institutional and social change that would eventually lead to the complete transformation of the Italian community. By 1897 Isoleri was referring to a “floating class” of Italians “scattered in and about the city” (138). In response to this growing population, Our Lady of Good Counsel opened its doors in 1898, and as immigration increased the new parish soon surpassed its progenitor. Chapter 9, a transitional one, then begins to place the evolution of the Philadelphia community within the larger context of the misnamed “Italian problem” that dictated the perception and actions of the Church in the United States. The last five chapters (10–14) trace the twentieth-century evolution: the continued growth in population with the changing sociological profiles, the various strategies of “institutional completeness” and “social pluralism” to deal with the Church's presence in the community, the ascendancy of Our Lady of Good Counsel, the disapora of the immigrants beyond South Philadelphia (chapter 12), the decline of Mary Magdalen dePazzi and the death of Isoleri, and the dismemberment of Our Lady of Good Counsel in 1933. The whole makes for a fascinating, complex, and well-told story, a fine narration of parochial leadership, social interaction, the persistence of ethnicity, and the challenges facing diocesan authorities.

This important study makes a significant contribution on several levels. The author is considerably aided in his analysis by the remarkable body of literature, including sermons and dramas, left by the erudite and perceptive Isoleri. The eyes of this “cultured, renaissance” priest provide the major lens for examining the negotiated identity of an Italian community oscillating between ethnic pride, stereotypical classifications, ecclesial allegiances, and civic participation. Much more than a work of historical sociology, Priest, Parish, and People contains solid reflections on the formation of group identity through images (Columbus as replacing the heroes of the Risorgimento, 59–60, chapter 6), participation in civic rituals (Washington's Birthday, the dedication of a Columbus statue, 97), celebrations of parochial allegiance (the laying of the cornerstone for a new church, 124), and practices of piety. If there is any criticism to be made, these illustrations and the focus on ritual practices and piety could perhaps be expanded by using interpretive models of which the author is clearly aware, such as those of Peter Brown (315). There are helpful social profiles of the community scattered throughout the pages, sketches that enable the historian to tack institutional changes to their demographic and economic base (10–12, 56–57, 110–113, 184). The heuristic concept of “institutional completeness”—the interrelated patterns formed by economic, familial, educational, political, and religious “arrangements” (1, 107)—enables the author to give a holistic approach to the community's formation, its maturation, and its decline. Glances at interactions with Protestant developments, the activities of secular Italian organizations, and programs of social outreach in settlement houses move the study beyond the usual confines of parochial boundaries. Especially beneficial for religious immigration studies is the analysis of the influence of the “Italian problem” as conceived by people outside the Philadelphia experience and the interpretive epicenter of the New York Church (chapter nine). Important distinctions are made here between the various religious practices and economic status of Italians at different times and from throughout the peninsula, not only the “Mezzogiorno and Sicily,” but also “Ligurians, Abruzzese-Molisani, and Neapolitans” (313). Finally, while seeming to concentrate on “Little Italy,” the author has also added considerably to our knowledge of the complexity of the immigrant experience. He has challenged successfully the reigning stereotype of the displaced and anti-clerical Italian Catholic immigrant. In so doing, Priest, Parish, and People also repositions our understanding of other more dominant cultural lenses.