Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia

by far the most interesting book I have read in ages, everything you wanted to know about the Mafia. And as everyone says, 'LEMONS!'?!?

A fascinating history (1/1 people found this helpful)

The development of the mafia in Sicily over the last 150 years is described in detail in this absorbing book.
The challenge of writing about a secret, criminal fraternity is obvious. How can you be sure of the accuaracy of your sources and to what extent have popular perceptions of the Mafia been distorted by the media industry that has fuelled its reputation and its mystique? Dickie never fails to acknowledge the difficulty of such a task and never falls into the trap of allowing his writing to become melodramatic or unrealistic. This means that his tale has the air of authority of journalistic prose and brings to life the conditions in which the Mafia arose by focusing on the social and economic events that encouraged its development.
This means that the book is of interest not just to historians but to anyone who has an interest in Italian culture and society. Dickie makes clear his admiration for those who have fought against violence and corruption and whose integrity has prompted the recent courtcases against mafia leaders.The book is well written and provides both an interesting introduction to a controversial subject and a brave rebuttal of Hollywood's tendency to glamourise crime.

It all started with Lemons !!! (6/6 people found this helpful)

Well I never.........but it really did, way back in the 1800's in Sicily.

I had no idea what to expect, and took to the task of reading what was described by a fellow Anglo-Italian as "the finest read concerning the Cosa Nostra" with great gusto.

Being written by an academic, (and not being one myself) it meant that there was always going to be some heavy going content, and the middle phase is indeed that. Great, but you do have to have your wits about you to take it in and it is all relative to the latter events and the developing threads. Dickie clearly knows his stuff and his supporting research is meticulous.

Covers everything, and everyone, from the startings back in the 1800's right up to modern day, including excellent quality detail on the Maxi trials and the assasinations of those brave Mafia-busting Judges, Falcone and Borsellino.

It even covers the export of Cosa Nostra to the USA and exposes the quite different methods and "management styles", albeit their "business interests" are very much aligned.

I read this alongside Donnie Brasco and it was quite amazing how much more I was able to relate to what he actually went through for those years and the magnitude of his achievements.

An excellent history (1/1 people found this helpful)

The praise given by critics and reviewers when this book was first published in 2004 are easily understood and justified when reading it in paperback format. While many earlier books have largely relied on a review of recent Sicilian history and events post WWII (Norman Lewis, Claire Sterling) or focussing on a very specific area (such as Alex Stille's "Excellent Cadavers" on the story of investigating magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino), this is the first real recent effort I know of in English to write a full history of the Sicilian Mafia under its correct name of Cosa Nostra. This is faciltated by the recent outpouring of Italian writings based on the vast amount of new information and evidence now available and which Dickie fully acknowledges in his book. In addition Dickie has also researched a number of historical sources and reports which have been largely ignored by previous English language writers.

What really places this book above the rest is:

Dickie has proven much better at covering the 19th century foundation of Cosa Nostra (and its earlier roots in Sicilian society) and then tracking this organisation's development of being a very tightly controlled killing machine exterminating any competition through the 20th century to date - the fact that nearly half of the book is devoted to the period before the end of WWII reflects this approach.

He has avoided the trap of spending too much time covering the US Mafia with its well known more public image and history, instead only referring to it as it actually impacts and helps our understanding of the Sicilian society's history.

Finally he has done a much fuller job than many prior books in tracking the Cosa Nostra linkage through Sicilian politics with Italian political history since Italian unification in late 19th century and especially since WWII, with the rise of Christian Democrats party who dominated Italian politics, especially under Andreotti. He makes a very strong case that without such political links and Rome's constant vacillation, Cosa Nostra would never have become as endemic and protected from the forces of law and order.

One ends the book feeling that the whole tragedy while not at an end is certainly moving into a model seen in many other countries, where criminal or terrorist elements have realised their best chances of survival are lower profile protection and corruption activities plus control of drugs, kidnapping and prostitution rather than seeking to always be in the public eye. This was almost wholly down to an almost public civil war started and executed by Leggio and Rinna with numerous public killings between 1970 and 1982. The murdering of a number of high profile police and anti-Mafia lawyers and politicians, ultimately created the environment where Falcone and Borsellino were able to achieve the maxi-trials in 1986 which used pentiti (defectors) such as Tomasso Buscetta. This led to many (but not all) leading Cosa Nostra old style heads being jailed for long terms under better enforced new Italian laws and those persons failing to date to obtain their freedom by political corruption in Rome.

The book is likely to be the classic text of the area for some time given all these strengths and with the organisation becoming more circumspect.

Good early history of cosa nostra (0/0 people found this helpful)

This book gives lots of good information relating to how cosa nostra started in sicily. It makes a very interesting read about their roots and improvements.

In my opinion it would have been good to included a little bit more about modern sicilian mafia to weigh up the extensive information about cosa nostra's roots.

All in all a very good read and highlights well the difference between the american mafia and the sicilian.

Almost worth 4 stars but somehow does not quite warrant it. But if you are interested in the mafia then definately READ IT!!!

Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia

John Dickie

Reader Reviews:

this book is great, capisci. (0/0 people found this helpful)

A fascinating history (1/1 people found this helpful)

It all started with Lemons !!! (6/6 people found this helpful)

An excellent history (1/1 people found this helpful)

Good early history of cosa nostra (0/0 people found this helpful)

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