An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America
Item Number
HV6446.D43
Author/Artist/Editor
George De Stefano
Type
Book, Hard Copy
Date
2006
Press/Publisher
Faber and Faber
Language
English
Description
The Mafia has maintained an enduring hold on the American cultural imagination--even as it continues to wrongly color our real-life perception of Italian Americans. Journalist and cultural critic De Stefano takes a look at the origins and prevalence of the Mafia mythos in America. Beginning with a consideration of Italian emigration in the early twentieth century and the fear and prejudice--among both Americans and Italians--that informed our earliest conception of what was the largest immigrant group to enter the United States, De Stefano explores how these impressions laid the groundwork for the images so familiar to us today and uses them to illuminate and explore the variety and allure of Mafia stories. At the same time, he addresses the lingering power of the goodfella cliché, which makes it all but impossible to green-light a project about the Italian American experience not set in gangland. |
Important Notes
Insert with black and white illustrations.
Keywords
Mafia, American Culture
ISSN/ISBN
978-0-86547-962-3
Availability
Available
OCLC
60420173