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Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
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Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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Schmitz, Paul. "D’Agostino Supermarkets, From Pushcart to Product: Family and Ethnicity as Cultural Currency," American and New England Studies, Boston University, April 2006.
This dissertation examines the evolution of ethnic identity and food retailing through the history of one of New York’s foremost grocery companies. Patsy and Nicholas D’Agostino came to the United States in the early twentieth century and sought to make their fortune in the produce business. Within three decades the brothers rose from the city’s pushcarts to win unexpected wealth and celebrity as supermarket entrepreneurs. Various public commentators promoted their “rags-to-riches” tale as confirmation of the virtues of post-World War II America, even as Patsy and Nicholas grappled with the costs of assimilation. Despite changes in the marketplace, their heirs were able to sustain the family business through a mix of commercial innovation and successful public imaging. With each new generation of management, and as the company matured from Italian grocery to cosmopolitan retailer, D’Agostino Supermarkets remade itself to match changes in the lifestyle of New York City. This dissertation marshals an array of historical sources in pursuit of its central questions, including oral interviews, personal memoirs, magazine and newspaper articles, trade journals, company advertising, and scholarly texts. It begins by exploring the internal conflict between the newcomers’ “Old World” traditions and their modern ambitions. The project then uses the story of the D’Agostino family to illustrate how, over the course of the twentieth century, the proverbial Ellis Island immigrant became the incarnation of the American values of self-reliance, diligence, and independence. The dissertation also explains how pushcarts and grocery stores served as the primary means of upward mobility and adaptation for many immigrants—a way for them to “become American” by incorporating the ethos of the free enterprise system. This study also provides a micro-history of the development of the supermarket. Finally, the dissertation analyzes the cultural import of ethnic and family-owned businesses and shows how entrepreneurs have capitalized on the sentimental attachments that Americans hold for these commercial models.
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