History of the Mafia

What Salvatore Lupo captures particularly well, against all the stereotypes, is the Mafioso as a modern character: the pure distillate of entrepreneurial and criminal intelligence that illuminates the history of both Italy and contemporary Europe. If we can truly break ourselves of the habit of thinking of the Mafia as a belated survival of Sicilian feudalism and the product of underdevelopment, we will have taken a major step forward, and perhaps even be on the road toward a solution. -- Roberto Saviano, author of Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System History of the Mafia is a tour de force bringing Salvatore Lupo's virtually unequaled expertise about the Mafia, Sicilian history, and Italian politics into play. The book is essential reading for anyone who hopes to be well informed about the Mafia. -- Nelson Moe, Columbia University, and author of The View from Vesuvius: Italian Culture and the Southern Question For anyone who has grown weary of the fond treatment of the Mafia in American popular culture this book is a tonic. The New Yorker 8/24/09 This is not a book of dramatic shoot-outs or even one that lingers long on individual characters. It is a sober assessment of the history of a movement. -- Hugh MacDonald Scotland Sunday Herald 8/16/09 With Lupo's History, you become a lot more knowledgeable about the phenomenon. -- Lee Lamothe Toronto Globe & Mail 8/15/2009 [Lupo] provides a useful spectrum of first-hand historic sources. -- Guy Dinmore Financial Times 8/1/09 Lupo carefully indicates and assesses the many ways in which the mafia has been understood...Recommended Choice May 2010 Well-researched... compellingly argued book, -- Richard Drake H-Italy 1/1/10