We’ll all heard the story of how America was named by a German mapmaker in 1507 after navigator Amerigo Vespucci announced that the islands Columbus had discovered were really two new continents. Why were both given the same name? This ...

Back in January, I wrote a blog called "Here's to the Ladies!" It was a reference to Tony Bennett's famous 1995 CD—a series of songs by famous American female singers—and also a tribute to talented Chicago women who have been ...

Contrary to Ken Burns’ recent documentary on the American Revolution, it was a band of Italians, the ancient Romans—not the Iroquois—who served as the model for our fledgling republic. Those are Roman fasces mounted in the U.S. House of Representatives ...

Alfred E. Smith Who were the pioneer U.S. government officials with Italian roots? The answers are more than names that belong in history books. In a tangible way they provide a measure of how far Italian-Americans have come in the ...