"Little Americas": l'intervento americano nel terremoto di Messina e Reggio del 1908

Moving from the testimony of Rear Admiral Reginald Rowan Belknap, author of a valuable “American House-Building in Messina and Reggio”, Boston 1910, and head of the U. S. mission to rescue the cities of Messina and Reggio destroyed by the catastrophic earthquake of December 1908, the article examines this episode in the context of the emergence of a clear “imperialistc” imprint on American foreign policy during the administration of Theodore Rooosevelt (1904-1908). The construction of two "American" villages in Messina and Reggio, in addition to similar initiatives in other small towns, is viewed as an attempt to export an "ideological" model, based on the inclusive pattern of a self-governing and democratic community, aiming at the substantial equality of its members. A version of the American Dream which "reads" American diversity and exceptionalism as the unifying core for a new world order which celebrates the rise of the United States and the parallel decline of European power.