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South of Rome–West of Ellis Island

July 17, 2013

When ‘Military Wars’ end … then ‘Culture Wars’ begin

Tom Verso
Photo by Vito Catalano

After their army won the military war, conquering southern Italy and administrating a crushing dehumanization to the peasant brigandage guerrillas, the Piedmontese then engaged...

July 1, 2013

Robert M. Lombardo’s book: “Organized Crime in Chicago: Beyond Mafia” … Or, in short, “Chicago = America”

Tom Verso

Robert M. Lombardo’s “Organized Crime in Chicago: Beyond Mafia” is a MUST read for students of the Mafia. However, NOT for the conclusions the author states about...

June 11, 2013

Mysterious West Sicily: Elymians, Trojan Refugees, Odyssey Women, Ligurian Colonizers, Rome’s Founders

Tom Verso
From Stina Persson's collection of paintings of Sicilian Women

Southern-Italian Americans are an ‘a-historical people’. Near seventeen million Americans of southern Italian descent have become a ‘history-less people’ forced to define...

May 28, 2013

His Eminence Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani…The Second Vatican Council’s Cassandra

Tom Verso

The history of Western Civilization cannot be divorced from the Catholic Church, and the history of the Church cannot be divorced from Italian and Mediterranean history and...

May 19, 2013

Thirty-Years Later – A Brilliant Italian-American Artist ‘Gets His Due’ – Michael Cimino and “Heaven’s Gate”

Tom Verso

Alessandro (Alex) Pirolini is a Lecturer in, but not limited to, UCLA’s Italian (“Italy Ends at the Garigliano”) Department. He has an absolutely amazing Curriculum Vita...

May 13, 2013

“Odyssey” – Women of Greece vs. the Women of Sicily

Tom Verso
Women of Greece meet Women of Sicily in the "Odyssey"

Previous articles (see Related Articles box) reported on the research of classical scholars Samuel Butler and L.G. Pocock who documented an overwhelming...

April 29, 2013

“Odyssey” ‘Song of Sicily’… Poet’s Images = Sicilian Reality

Tom Verso

A previous article (“Step Aside Homer…” link in Related Articles box) introduced the meticulously documented factual based conclusions of two eminent classical scholars, who...

April 10, 2013

Prostitutes and Lemon Trees: John Dickie’s ‘New Mafia Historiography’ Fails Without Social Science –The Class Character of Crime

Tom Verso
Future Mafiosi – Evil Incarnate

With ‘friends’ like the new Mafia historiographers, Terroni don’t need ‘enemies’. ----Donna Gabaccia, the Keynote Speaker at the 2012 Italian American Studies...

March 22, 2013

Why was John Dickie the "Keynote Speaker" at the 2012 American Association Italian Studies Conference?...Is it a WOMEN's THING"?

Tom Verso
John Dickie and the Women of AAIS

How is it that one of the primer English language south of Rome historians was invited to be the Keynote Speaker for an organization of Italian American scholars and teachers who...

March 12, 2013

Frank Lentricchia follows DeLillo back to Little Italy Home – but not Domini to Southern Italy Homeland

Tom Verso

The recent forty-fifth Conference of the Italian American Studies Association, like the previous forty-four, was largely devoid of southern Italy or Sicily presentations (note...

March 1, 2013

Palermo - Ancient Walls and Modern Streets

Tom Verso
From the amazing Kevin Flude collection - see link below
Remnant of Palermo Medieval wall located at intersection of Via dei Benedettini, Via Albergheria, and Via Carlo Forianini. Note pointed arch, which implies it was built during or after Norman period. Pointed Arches, the structural and aesthetic essence of Gothic, invented by the Turks and came to Europe via Sicily

One can hardly read a journalistic or scholarly article about Palermo without coming across references to the ‘Old City Walls.’ For example, “Toward the end of the...

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