The two mafias : a transatlantic history, 1888-2008

Resource Information

The work The two mafias : a transatlantic history, 1888-2008 represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The two mafias : a transatlantic history, 1888-2008

Title remainder

a transatlantic history, 1888-2008

Statement of responsibility

Salvatore Lupo

Creator

• Lupo, Salvatore, 1951-

Subject

• Mafia -- Italy | Sicily -- History
• Mafia -- United States -- History
• United States -- Emigration and immigration
• Sicily (Italy) -- Emigration and immigration

Language

• eng
• ita
• eng

Summary

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.--

Member of

• Quando la mafia trovò l'America
• Italian and Italian American studies (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))

Assigning source

Provided by Publisher

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

364.106094580904

Illustrations

• illustrations
• maps

Index

index present

Language note

Translated from the Italian

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

Italian and Italian American studies