The Battle for Sicily's Soul: The Rise of the Mafia and the Fight to Free Sicily from Its Evil Tyranny

by Claudine Cassar

Overview

The Mafia survived in the shadows while holding Sicily in an iron-clad fist for over a century. Its colonisation of Sicilian folklore, such as the legend of the Beati Paoli, and misappropriation of traditional Sicilian values, including the importance of honour and love for the family, made Cosa Nostra appear to be a timeless and inevitable reality of Sicilian life.

A very important part of this strategy was the takeover of Catholic symbols, rituals and performative events that are beloved by Sicilians, branding the Mafia and its members as honourable and devout, while in fact they were quite the opposite.

This book looks at how Cosa Nostra manipulated Sicilian society and the Catholic Church for decades, disappearing into the background while hiding in plain sight. The roots of the Mafia in the island's religious superstition, bigotry and legends were so strong that it took over one hundred years and a massacre for the vows of secrecy to be broken, revealing the true face of the Sicilian Mafia.

Civil society, the Italian State, and the Catholic Church are now engaged in a relentless and ongoing battle with the Mafia for Sicily's soul.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789918615001
Publisher:	Alert Publishing
Publication date:	10/22/2022
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Claudine Cassar founded her first company, a web development agency, when she was just 23 years old. While growing the business, she also wrote a weekly column in a national newspaper, writing about current affairs and politics. In 2016 she sold her company to a Big Four firm and embarked on a new chapter of her life.Claudine is now a freelance writer, business consultant and start-up mentor, while also pursuing her dream of becoming an anthropologist. Her first book, "The Battle for Sicily's Soul" is a gripping account of one of the most violent and powerful criminal organizations in the world, and of the brave men and women who dared to oppose it.In addition to writing books, Claudine also blogs about anthropology and global organised crime.https://claudinecassar.com/https://mafianews.org/https://anthropologyreview.org/

Editorial Reviews

2023-04-26
Cassar presents an in-depth exploration of the Mafia’s rise to power and the fight to weaken its grip on Sicilian society in this nonfiction work.

Stories and stereotypes about the Sicilian Mafia are indisputably popular, but most are based more on legend than reality. The author exposes the organization’s vicious nature in this ambitious, copiously referenced, and highly readable examination of its historical roots in Sicilian society, the tactics that held every aspect of life on the island in an iron grip for more than a century, and the bravery of those who dared to stand up against violence and corruption. Cassar details how one foreign power after another exploited Sicily’s rich natural resources and oppressed its people from the ancient era through the 1900s, explaining how the Mafia distorted ingrained cultural attitudes and repurposed religious symbolism to frame corruption of the rich and exploitation of the poor as matters of loyalty, tradition, and honor. The author movingly describes the incredible courage of those who risked their lives to fight organized crime—including judges, prosecutors, parish priests, and ordinary villagers. “The residents of the mafia capital were expressing their rage through handmade signs painted on bedsheets,” Cassar writes. “Every person who was hanging the sheet outside their home was making a clear declaration of intent, telling both the authorities and the Mafia—you know who we are and you know where we live, but we are no longer willing to be silent.” The author’s clear prose is easy to follow, the insights into Sicilian culture and the inner workings of the Mafia are fascinating, and the stories of individuals and organizations who put everything on the line to fight back are truly inspiring. The end of each section includes a helpful timeline of the events it covers as well as occasional footnotes, a five-page bibliography, and more than 200 endnotes and references.

A gripping narrative of the roots, rise, and fall of a notorious criminal organization.

Kirkus Reviews