Giuliano's story begins with the allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, a time of great turmoil allegiances. One of World War II's most bizarre episodes was Operation Underworld. This was a secret alliance formed between American army intelligence officers and the Mafia kingpin, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, so that the New York docks would be free of sabotage. In exchange, the Sicilian Mafia leaders would assist the Allied landings by providing intelligence information on Sicily. Luciano was released from prison and deported to Sicily. As agreed, American forces placed certain Mafia members who were loyal to Luciano in positions of power. Anyone who resisted the regime was either killed or imprisoned. The situation was desperate and it seemed that there was no one strong enough to stand against the evil that was engulfing the land. For some time, Giuliano had been waging his own war against the corruption by smuggling food into the area to feed his family and help the town's people of Montelebro. The police confiscated Salvatore's gram and tried to arrest him. He resisted and was shot twice in the back but killed an officer before he escaped into the hills. Now a hunted man, villagers flocked to the hills around Montelebro to join him. Salvatore Giuliano's resistance movement soon became a symbol of Sicily's desire to escape from the dominance of Italy and establish self-government. Political parties seeking autonomy for the island eagerly supported his cause, while politicians who opposed him devised a plot they felt would finally eliminate him.

An account of the life of Salvatore Giuliano.

Belliotti analyzes the role of positive duties in moral theory, the efficacy of theocratic republicanism, strategies for political revolutions, the implications of an enduring Sicilian ethos, and the profits and perils of the individual-community continuum, while distinctively interpreting the lives and ideologies of Mazzini, Gramsci, and Giuliano.

The pre-dawn arrests of the last remaining mafiosi in December 2008 signalled the end of the Sicilian Mafia as we know it. In Mafia: Inside the Dark Heart, A.G.D. Maran charts the complete history of the world's most infamous criminal organisation, from its first incarnation as an alternative form of local government in the Sicilian countryside and arguable force for 'good' to the more familiar form that has been immortalised in films such as The Godfather, and its final defeat after a long-awaited change of attitude by the Italian government. The author has used his many Italian contacts and a decade of exhaustive research to bring to life the story of the Sicilian Mafia while also exploring the links to the Cosa Nostra in America. Along the way, he asks many provocative questions, including: Why was Lucky Luciano, the father of modern organised crime, freed from a life sentence in America and deported to Italy, allowing him to organise the international drug trade? Was the Mafia involved in the death of Pope John Paul I? Why did the Mafia murder Roberto Calvi, known as God's Banker? What is the relationship between the Mafia and Freemasonry? Why did successive Italian governments fail to tackle the Mafia? Why did it take 40 years to find the Last Godfathers? These and many other riveting issues are covered in Maran's refreshing new take on a perennially enthralling subject.

This is an interdisciplinary work that philosophically analyzes concepts such as heroism; practical wisdom; honor; Nietzsche’s notions of will to power, the overman, and the three metamorphoses; Plato’s understanding of love; creating meaning in life; the issue of morally dirty hands in political administration; the relationship between political means and ends; the proper role of positive duties in society; the aspirations of grand strivers; and the linkages between biological, biographical, and autobiographical lives, all in the context of explaining and evaluating the lives and works of fourteen historically significant Italian: Gaius Julius Caesar, Brunetto Latini, Dante Alighieri, Caterina Sforza, Niccolò Machiavelli, Giuseppe Mazzini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Francesca Cabrini, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Antonio Gramsci, Salvatore Giuliano, Oriana Fallaci, Giovanni Falcone, and Paolo Borsellino. By dissecting the lives and philosophies of the figures discussed in this work, by extracting moral, political, and existential lessons from their aspirations and enterprises, by reflecting on their ideals from the vantage point of our divergent social context, by evaluating their virtues and vices from a wider perspective, and by confronting the conceptual puzzles and social impediments hampering the exercise of practical wisdom and heroism, we may confront the people that we are and reimagine the people we might become.

In 1960s Sicily, the Mafia were everywhere - and never seen. In the small town of Cinisi their power was unspoken, and absolute: 'it's in the air that you breathe' as the locals used to say. One man however, dared to speak out. Like many Sicilians, Peppino Impastato was born in to a family with strong Mafia affiliations. When he decided to oppose the Mafia, his father, a close friend of the local 'capo', threw him out of the house. In this compelling book, based on exclusive interviews with the protaganists, Tom Behan takes us inside the town Peppino dubbed 'Mafiopoli', and tells a story the rest of the world has never heard before: a tale of courage and resistance in the very heartland of Mafia power. Peppino launched a radio show which savagely pilloried the Mafia and their allies. It set the town ablaze. A subversive grassroots movement developed, eager to take on the forces of corruption and privilege. Peppino stood for election to the Cinisi Council. What happened to him is the gripping story of this book.