[Hodder & Stoughton]
Kategoria: Książki / Literatura obcojęzyczna
In MAFIA REPUBLIC, John Dickie, Professor of Italian
Studies at University College, London and author of the
international bestsellers COSA NOSTRA and
MAFIA BROTHERHOODS,...
Pełen opis produktu 'Mafia Republic: Italy's Criminal Curse. Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta and Camorra from 1946 to the Present' »
In MAFIA REPUBLIC, John Dickie, Professor of Italian Studies at
University College, London and author of the international
bestsellers COSA NOSTRA and MAFIA BROTHERHOODS, shows how the
Italian mafias have grown in power and become more and more
interconnected, with terrifying consequences. The Financial Times
described John Dickie's MAFIA BROTHERHOODS as 'Powered by the sort
of muscular prose that one associates with great detective fiction'
and in MAFIA REPUBLIC John Dickie again marries outstanding
scholarship with compelling storytelling. In 1946, Italy became a
democratic Republic, thereby entering the family of modern western
nations. But deep within Italy there lurked a forgotten curse:
three major criminal brotherhoods, whose methods had been honed
over a century of experience. As Italy grew, so did the mafias.
Sicily's Cosa Nostra, the camorra from Naples, and the mysterious
'ndrangheta from Calabria stood ready to enter the wealthiest and
bloodiest period of their long history. Italy made itself rich by
making scooters, cars and handbags. The mafias carved out their own
route to wealth through tobacco smuggling, construction, kidnapping
and narcotics.And as criminal business grew exponentially, the
mafias grew not just more powerful, but became more interconnected.
By the 1980s, Southern Italy was on the edge of becoming a
narco-state. The scene was set for a titanic confrontation between
heroic representatives of the law, and mafiosi who could no longer
tolerate any obstacle to their ambitions. This was a war for
Italy's future as a civilized country. At its peak in 1992-93, the
'ndrangheta was beheading people in the street, and the Sicilian
mafia murdered its greatest enemies, investigating magistrates
Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, before embarking on a major
terrorist bombing campaign on the Italian mainland. Today, the long
shadow of mafia history still hangs over a nation wracked by debt,
political paralysis, and widespread corruption. While police put
their lives on the line every day, one of Silvio Berlusconi's
ministers said that Italy had to 'learn to live with the mafia';
suspicions of mafia involvement still surround some of the
country's most powerful media moguls and politicians.The latest
investigations show that its reach is astonishing: it controls much
of Europe's wholesale cocaine trade, and representatives from as
far away as Germany, Canada and Australia come to Calabria to seek
authorisation for their affairs. Just when it thought it had
finally contained the mafia threat, Italy is now discovering that
it harbours the most global criminal network of them all.