On the fifth anniversary of Smith’s death, making sense of a Past Gone Mad. Smith evinced a cultural bitterness that seemed to prefigure the working- and middle-class discontent we see today.

As a nation in pain, we are sold pills for everything. What if we tried a different approach to ease our pain?

The stories that we tell ourselves can hold us back or move us forward. A look at the Italian American experience shows us we all have thing or two to learn about our own history.