This book is a study of the assimilation process as it applies to Italian Americans. Chapters One and Two provide a contextual framework for the study by discussing the theoretical paradigms that have been advanced to describe ethnic behaviors or the assimilation experience and by reviewing pre-immigration and early immigration experiences of Italians. Chapters Three through Ten present the study itself. Data were collected through interviews with 469 Italian Americans within the framework of seven assimilation subprocesses: cultural, social structural, identification, marital, attitudinal and behavioral, receptional, and civic. Chapters Eleven and Twelve summarize the empirical findings, place them in a theoretical perspective, and discuss the character and prevalence of what has been labeled the "New Ethnicity." Tables of data are included. (Author/MK)