John Dickie writes the first history of the role of the British Consul, a political position that has always played an important part in world affairs. In the fifteenth century, the Consul functioned as a mercantile officer, smoothing the way for British traders in foreign ports. Today, the Consul handles the aftermath of terrorist attacks and natural disasters. Dickie begins with the appointment's early days of service with such trading houses as the Muscovy Company, the Levant Company, and the East India Company, and he concludes with the modern era, in which the Consul has had to face challenges ranging from the fallout of the package-holiday revolution and international protest rallies to overzealous sports fans and backpackers. Dickie recounts Mao Tse-tung's Red Guard attack on the British Legation in 1967, an event recalling the Boxers' siege almost seventy years earlier. He reveals how the Consuls coped with the traumatic experience of the use of British citizens as human shields by Saddam Hussein in 1990 and with the rescue of British hostages from the Moscow theater seized by Chechen rebels in 2002. The British Consul makes brilliant use of archival materials and the author's own fund of experience in the field. His acerbic wit and entertaining anecdotes illuminate the little-known aspects of an invaluable service that has played a fascinating and multifaceted role on the world stage.

The British Consul: Heir to a Great Tradition (Columbia/Hurst)

History

Dickie, John.

Europe

Columbia University Press

Special No More: Anglo-American Relations : Rhetoric and Reality

Reference

Words, Language & Grammar

Weidenfeld &Nicholson

El libro de Dickie, muy documentado y de apasionante lectura, es un repaso a la historia de la mafia siciliana desde su remota fundación en el siglo XVIII hasta nuestros días. El autor, con una narración que se sigue de forma trepidante, ofrece un estudio pormenorizado de cómo aparece, cuáles fueron las razones y cómo se fue articulando esta gran organización criminal. Desde los tiempos de la exportación de cítricos desde Sicilia a la península italiana -con los consiguientes impuestos de paso-, hasta las sospechas de los íntimos lazos de importantes políticos como Andreotti y otros dirigentes de la DC o la misma Iglesia católica con estos grupos criminales, pasando por la importancia de la mafia en la unificación italiana o en la segunda guerra mundial, el libro se centra en Sicilia, cuna y origen de la “verdadera mafia”. El libro repasa también, como no podía ser de otra manera, las conexiones entre estos delincuentes organizados y los Estados Unidos (negocios, corrupción, ley seca, drogas y prostitución, etc). Dikie describe cómo la mafia se ha convertido en una especie de “estado en la sombra” que controla el territorio, la “fiscalidad”, administra su particular justicia, decide quien ha de vivir o morir incluyo llegando a controlar de las minas de mercurio. En ese sentido la mafia siciliana concede un alto valor al poder político y de ahí su interés en infiltrarse en las instituciones democráticas que el libro refleja con numerosos ejemplos. Siendo un libro de historia contemporánea, este trabajo llega hasta nuestros días cuando aborda la relación política-mafia. En cuanto a los vínculos con el mundo político, el autor repasa casos como el asesinato del juez Falcone, la matanza de Portella della Ginestra o el “maxiproceso” contra la mafia en Palermo. También, y para situar al lector, se presentan retratos de personajes como Lucky Luciano, Giovanni Brusca, Tommaso Buscetta o Bernardo Provenzano entre otros. Hombres de los que, a veces, ni existían fotografías, ni se conocía su aspecto físico. En resumen se podría decir que se trata de un libro muy documentado, entretenido como una novela policíaca o una novela histórica, que arroja infinidad de datos que dejan en el lector la sensación, una vez leído, de que pasan muchas cosas por debajo de los que conocemos como realidad.

Cosa Nostra: Historia de la Mafia siciliana (Spanish Edition)

Debate

Cosa Nostra

The Mafia has been given many names since it was founded in the mid-19th century - the Sect, the Brotherhood, the Honoured Society, and now Cosa Nostra. Yet as times have changed, the Mafia's subtle and bloody methods have remained the same. This book reconstructs the complete history of the Sicilian Mafia from its origins to the modern day, from the lemon groves and sulphur mines of Sicily, to the streets of Manhattan.

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

Cosa Nostra: a history of the Sicilian mafia

Hodder&Stoughton

Buon appetito! Everyone loves Italian food. But how did the Italians come to eat so well?The answer lies amid the vibrant beauty of Italy's historic cities. For a thousand years, they have been magnets for everything that makes for great eating: ingredients, talent, money, and power. Italian food is city food.From the bustle of medieval Milan's marketplace to the banqueting halls of Renaissance Ferrara; from street stalls in the putrid alleyways of nineteenth-century Naples to the noisy trattorie of postwar Rome: in rich slices of urban life, historian and master storyteller John Dickie shows how taste, creativity, and civic pride blended with princely arrogance, political violence, and dark intrigue to create the world's favorite cuisine. Delizia! is much more than a history of Italian food. It is a history of Italy told through the flavors and character of its cities.A dynamic chronicle that is full of surprises, Delizia! draws back the curtain on much that was unknown about Italian food and exposes the long-held canards. It interprets the ancient Arabic map that tells of pasta's true origins, and shows that Marco Polo did not introduce spaghetti to the Italians, as is often thought, but did have a big influence on making pasta a part of the American diet. It seeks out the medieval recipes that reveal Italy's long love affair with exotic spices, and introduces the great Renaissance cookery writer who plotted to murder the Pope even as he detailed the aphrodisiac qualities of his ingredients. It moves from the opulent theater of a Renaissance wedding banquet, with its gargantuan ten-course menu comprising hundreds of separate dishes, to the thin soups and bland polentas that would eventually force millions to emigrate to the New World. It shows how early pizzas were disgusting and why Mussolini championed risotto. Most important, it explains the origins and growth of the world's greatest urban food culture.With its delectable mix of vivid storytelling, groundbreaking research, and shrewd analysis, Delizia! is as appetizing as the dishes it describes. This passionate account of Italy's civilization of the table will satisfy foodies, history buffs, Italophiles, travelers, students -- and anyone who loves a well-told tale.

Delizia! The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Sceptre

Everyone loves Italian food. But how did the Italians come to eat so well The advertising industry tells us the answer lies in the vineyards and olive groves of Tuscany - among sun-weathered peasants, and mammas serving pasta under the pergola. Yet this nostalgic fantasy has little to do with the real history of Italian cuisine.For a thousand years, Italys cities have been magnets for everything that makes for great eating: ingredients, talent, money, and power. So Italian food is city food, and telling its story means telling the story of the Italians as a people of city dwellers.In DELIZIA! the author of the acclaimed COSA NOSTRA takes a revelatory historical journey through the flavours of Italys cities. From the bustle of Medieval Milan, to the bombast of Fascist Rome; from the pleasure gardens of Renaissance Ferrara, to the putrid alleyways of nineteenth-century Naples. In rich slices of urban life, DELIZIA! shows how violence and intrigue, as well as taste and creativity, combined to make the worlds favourite cuisine.

Delizia!

Regional & International

MAFIA BROTHERHOODS (previously published as BLOOD BROTHERHOODS) is the enthralling new history of Italian organised crime by the author of the international bestseller COSA NOSTRA. The Sicilian mafia, or Cosa Nostra, is far from being Italy's only dangerous criminal fraternity. The south of the country hosts two other major mafias: the camorra, from Naples and its hinterland; and the 'ndrangheta, the mafia from the poor and isolated region of Calabria that has now risen to become the most powerful mob of all.Each of these brotherhoods has its own methods, its own dark rituals, its own style of ferocity and corruption. Their early history is little known; indeed some of it has been entirely shrouded in myth and silence until now. MAFIA BROTHERHOODS is a book of breathtaking ambition, charting the birth and rise of all three of Italy's mafias. It blends ground-breaking archival research, passionate narrative, and shrewd historical analysis to bring Italy's unique 'criminal ecosystem', and the three terrifying criminal brotherhoods that evolved within it, to life on the page.Previously published as BLOOD BROTHERHOODS.

Blood Brotherhoods: The Rise of the Italian Mafias

The Philosophy of Witchcraft

Mitchell, J.

Wentworth Press

Buon appetito! Everyone loves Italian food. But how did the Italians come to eat so well?The answer lies amid the vibrant beauty of Italy's historic cities. For a thousand years, they have been magnets for everything that makes for great eating: ingredients, talent, money, and power. Italian food is city food.
From the bustle of medieval Milan's marketplace to the banqueting halls of Renaissance Ferrara; from street stalls in the putrid alleyways of nineteenth-century Naples to the noisy trattorie of postwar Rome: in rich slices of urban life, historian and master storyteller John Dickie shows how taste, creativity, and civic pride blended with princely arrogance, political violence, and dark intrigue to create the world's favorite cuisine. Delizia! is much more than a history of Italian food. It is a history of Italy told through the flavors and character of its cities.
A dynamic chronicle that is full of surprises, Delizia! draws back the curtain on much that was unknown about Italian food and exposes the long-held canards. It interprets the ancient Arabic map that tells of pasta's true origins, and shows that Marco Polo did not introduce spaghetti to the Italians, as is often thought, but did have a big influence on making pasta a part of the American diet. It seeks out the medieval recipes that reveal Italy's long love affair with exotic spices, and introduces the great Renaissance cookery writer who plotted to murder the Pope even as he detailed the aphrodisiac qualities of his ingredients. It moves from the opulent theater of a Renaissance wedding banquet, with its gargantuan ten-course menu comprising hundreds of separate dishes, to the thin soups and bland polentas that would eventually force millions to emigrate to the New World. It shows how early pizzas were disgusting and why Mussolini championed risotto. Most important, it explains the origins and growth of the world's greatest urban food culture.
With its delectable mix of vivid storytelling, groundbreaking research, and shrewd analysis, Delizia! is as appetizing as the dishes it describes. This passionate account of Italy's civilization of the table will satisfy foodies, history buffs, Italophiles, travelers, students -- and anyone who loves a well-told tale.

Delizia!: The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food

Cooking Education & Reference

Atria Books

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