“The Mafia: A Cultural History hinges on a moral knot: the mythologising of chivalric Cosa Nostra values of honour, loyalty and family versus the grim realpolitik of institutionalised racketeering, money laundering, shakedown operations and assassinations. The Mafia: A Cultural History has its blind spots (Scorsese’s work gets short shrift), but the accent is on Italian history, not American culture. Your average gangster-movie buff might be better directed towards Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls or Brett Martin’s Difficult Men for the skinny on the making of Mean Streets or The Sopranos. But any reader interested in Mafia facts rather than myths will find Roberto Dainotto an exceptionally informed and illuminating guide.”

Peter Murphy – The Irish Times  (JC BookGrocer)

"This book helps to challenge the many clichEs written and said about the Mafia. Written with clarity, intelligence, and expertise, it makes us understand the true essence of the Mafia, a crime organization organically linked to power and wealth and which contributed to the survival of social antagonism. Dainotto does a superb job of weaving together the complex history of the Mafia. It is faithfully factual, gripping, prescribed reading." --Antonio Nicaso, author of Bloodlines and Angels, Mobsters and Narco-Terrorists: The Rising Menace of Global Criminal Empires

Born in Sicily, Roberto Dainotto is Professor of Romance Studies and of Literature at Duke University, North Carolina, and author of Europe (in Theory) (2007).

Preface, Chapter 1: Of Rustic Knights and Godfathers, Chapter 2: From Corleone and Hollywood, Chapter 3: The Far West is Here, Chapter 4: The Godfather, Chapter 5: Part Time, Chapter 6: Avatars, Works Cited