Global Criminal Organizations
A.Y. 2022/2023
Learning objectives
The course focuses on the topic of global criminal organizations by referring especially to the history of the Italian-American Mafia as one of its many expressions into the modern historical and social background. The course's main purpose is to frame the historical evolution of Italian organized crime in the United States and, at the same time, sociologically define the role of the mobster in the mass consumption society during the Twentieth century.
Expected learning outcomes
The course aims to give the students the necessary knowledge for understanding the interstate phenomenon of Italian organized crime in the United States through the analysis of its structural change elapsed between the late Nineteenth and the Twentieth century. In particular, the evolution of the Italian-American underworld from Black Hand to Cosa Nostra is explained through the transatlantic unlawful business that it was able to led (from counterfeiting to compulsory prostitution, from alcohol bootlegging to drug trafficking). At the same time, it is crucial to reconstruct the making of the law and police means in order to counter the Mafia rackets.
Lesson period: First trimester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First trimester
Course syllabus
The course faces the rise of Italian organized crime through a dual historical and sociological perspective especially focused on the history of the Italian-American mob in the United States between the Nineteenth and the Twentieth century, and the coming of the social phenomenon of gangsterism into modern western society as well. The main topics to learn in the course deals with:
1) Italian mass migration to the United States and first forms of organized crime in New Orleans
2) the New York Black Hand as "First Family" of the Italian-American Mafia
3) Prohibition, alcohol bootlegging and the gangster in the mass consumption society
4) first anti-racket laws and the anti-Mafia between Italy and the United States
1) Italian mass migration to the United States and first forms of organized crime in New Orleans
2) the New York Black Hand as "First Family" of the Italian-American Mafia
3) Prohibition, alcohol bootlegging and the gangster in the mass consumption society
4) first anti-racket laws and the anti-Mafia between Italy and the United States
Prerequisites for admission
Knowledge of the modern history of Italy and the United States.
Teaching methods
The first part of the course will be held with lectures in which the aforementioned topics will be faced, also by consulting Italian and US press and judicial sources. All the PowerPoints and PDFs used during the course will be shared in the Ariel page, accessible at https://ariel.unimi.it/, as well as part of the textbooks for the oral exam. In the course's second part, instead, the attending students have to draw up a 15-20 minutes talk in class (also using PowerPoints) on one of the following subjects:
1) Italian mass migration and anti-immigration laws (1882-1924)
2) New York between prohibition and bootlegging (1920-1933)
3) Black Hand, Unione Siciliana, Cosa Nostra: from counterfeiting to drug trafficking (1861-1984)
4) the anti-Mafia: the Hennessy murder, Petrosino and the Italian Squad, the anti-racket laws in New York, the Kefauver and McClellan Committees and the RICO Act (1891-1970)
5) Gangsterism and cinema: from The Black Hand to The Godfather - Part III (1906-1990)
1) Italian mass migration and anti-immigration laws (1882-1924)
2) New York between prohibition and bootlegging (1920-1933)
3) Black Hand, Unione Siciliana, Cosa Nostra: from counterfeiting to drug trafficking (1861-1984)
4) the anti-Mafia: the Hennessy murder, Petrosino and the Italian Squad, the anti-racket laws in New York, the Kefauver and McClellan Committees and the RICO Act (1891-1970)
5) Gangsterism and cinema: from The Black Hand to The Godfather - Part III (1906-1990)
Teaching Resources
For attending students:
Salvatore Lupo, The Two Mafias: A Transatlantic History, 1888-2008, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Francesco Landolfi, Politics, Police and Crime in New York During Prohibition: Gotham and the Age of Recklessnes, 1920-1933, New York-London, Routledge, 2022.
For non-attending students:
Salvatore Lupo, The Two Mafias: A Transatlantic History, 1888-2008, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Francesco Landolfi, Politics, Police and Crime in New York During Prohibition: Gotham and the Age of Recklessnes, 1920-1933, New York-London, Routledge, 2022.
Lee Bernstein, The Greatest Menace: Organized Crime in Cold War America, Boston, University of Massachusetts Press, 2009.
Salvatore Lupo, The Two Mafias: A Transatlantic History, 1888-2008, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Francesco Landolfi, Politics, Police and Crime in New York During Prohibition: Gotham and the Age of Recklessnes, 1920-1933, New York-London, Routledge, 2022.
For non-attending students:
Salvatore Lupo, The Two Mafias: A Transatlantic History, 1888-2008, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Francesco Landolfi, Politics, Police and Crime in New York During Prohibition: Gotham and the Age of Recklessnes, 1920-1933, New York-London, Routledge, 2022.
Lee Bernstein, The Greatest Menace: Organized Crime in Cold War America, Boston, University of Massachusetts Press, 2009.
Assessment methods and Criteria
Oral exam with questions concerning the textbooks and the course program files (PowerPoints, PDFs) shared on Ariel. To the attending students: the making of the talk in class will be valued as half of the total exam.
SPS/09 - ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY OF WORK AND ORGANIZATIONS - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours
Professor:
Landolfi Francesco
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