A very good book about two of the ethnic groups who at one time made up a large portion of the jobs in New York City that no one else wanted to do. The author first takes you to the time when the Irish migrated to the city and the problems they had and then how they would become firemen, police officers and even send troops to the civil war. When the Italians started to migrate of course the Irish did not like it for they felt it would be taking jobs, so of course fights broke out. He also shows you that the Catholic Church began to have a problem as well since most of them were Irish and with Irish Priests that Rome with the help of an Irish Priest set up a congregation for Italians and in their neighborhood when a church was finally built by local donations. As there were fights with jobs, church, even government the author shows you times when they began to work together against forces working at keeping them down. Eventually, even the two started marrying and blending families back then at first was just Italian and Irish or Irish and Italian, what a combination. A very good book with a lot of history of both cultures and of New York.