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