The Two Mafias: A Transatlantic History, 1888-2008

ISBN-13: 9781137491350 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 236 str.

Salvatore Lupo

Opis

For many people, the term 'mafia' connotes a vast and powerful organization originating exclusively in southern Italy. In this bracing new history, however, renowned Italian historian Salvatore Lupo argues that a realistic understanding of the mafia phenomenon must avoid two seemingly opposed and persistent depictions: one of a single octopus extending its tentacles from Sicily to envelop the world, the other of thousands of small, localized groups operating in relative isolation. Instead, the mafia is best understood within the context of a network of overlapping business, municipal, and familial relationships and institutions. Mafia networks could cover a single rural village like a tight mesh, but they could also forge connections between areas as geographically remote as the Conca d'Oro citrus groves and the Brooklyn waterfront. Their influence extended not just from Italy to the United States, but in the other direction as well, and in both instances they occupied a hazy social space between legality and illegality. Moving from the first Italian immigrants of the 19th century to the most recent historical developments, Lupo's rigorous study reveals the mafia to be the result of a complex cultural and social encounter that was shaped by multiple, diverse environments.

Recenzje

"Salvatore Lupo's The Two Mafias is an important contribution to an emerging body of literature that seeks to provide a sober, comprehensive analysis of the transatlantic ramifications of the Sicilian Mafia. ... The Two Mafias is a meticulous analysis of the historical record on the relationship between American and Sicilian mafiosi, and it is a profound critique of the academic debate of the past seven decades on the Mafia in the United States." (Klaus von Lampe, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books, clcjbooks.rutgers.edu, July, 2017)

"Refreshingly well written and insightful in their approach, both as revealing histories and as analyses of how and why Italian organized crime has developed and changed over time and across locations. ... The Two Mafias ... by developing new evidence and fresh arguments, are effective guides for taking another look at a distinctive chapter of Italian and Italian American history and for understanding the persistence of organized criminal networks around the world." (Jay S. Albanese, Italian American Review, Vol. 7 (2), 2017)

Spis treści

1. Amid the Great Flood of Migrants
2. Roaring Twenties
3. History and Myths of Organized Crime 
4. The New World and the Old World at War 
5. Looking for and at the Enemy
6. The Last Sicilian Wave
7. Mafia ' 's Ideology

O autorze

Salvatore Lupo is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Palermo, Italy. The foremost and most frequently cited authority on the history of Sicilian mafia, he has published over 20 books and is a co-founder of the journal Meridiana.