I'm An American -- Gaetono Salvemini

On January 5, 1941 Gaetano Salvemini spoke with Henry Nichols, of the Boston Immigration and Naturalization Service, about the opportunities he’s found in America. Salvemini shares his journey to America. The college professor reveals access to information from the library as the biggest difference difference in European and American colleges. Traveling across the country without question, the freedom to print without censorship, and choosing the news he wants to listen to are a few of the reasons why he loves his adopted country. He suggests that all forms of government are imperfect because humans are imperfect. Salvemini speaks of feeling physical pain when he hears talk against democracy. He says he understands the immigrant who kisses American soil upon arrival. He says, “Liberty is like air. Only when gone do others appreciate it.” Nichols asks the historian why it took him a decade to make America his home, to which he replies, he could not take an oath half heartedly. Salvemini explains his allegiance to America and defends his continued love for Italy. The program ends with the professor saying he would never break his oath to the U.S. even if things improved in Italy. Gaetano Salvemini was born on September 8, 1873 in Molfetta, Italy to a poor peasant family. While receiving his education at the Institute for Higher Studies in Florence, he became involved in the socialist movement. Salvemini saw the history of the Florentine Republic as one of class conflict. His 1899 book "Magnati e popolani nelle commune di Firenza 1280-1295" was considered the manifesto of the new Italian historiography. In 1908, an earthquake at Messina killed his entire family. Salvemini served in the Italian Parliament between 1919 and 1921 as a socialist. As the leading critic of fascist ruler Benito Mussolini, the 43-year-old politician was arrested and imprisoned in 1925. He immigrated to the US in 1930 and taught Italian history at Harvard University from 1933 to 1948. The prestigious institution considers Salvemini’s collaboration with exiled European professors during the anti-fascist movement as his most important work. Salvemini became a US citizen in 1940, but after the second World War he retired in his native country.