The invention of Sicily
a Mediterranean history
- ISBN: 9781786637741
- Editorial: Verso Books
- Fecha de la edición: 2025
- Lugar de la edición: London. Reino Unido
- Encuadernación: Rústica
- Medidas: 22 cm
- Nº Pág.: 304
- Idiomas: Inglés
A crossroads of the Mediterranean, Sicily links Europe, Africa and the East. In this riveting, rich history Jamie Mackay peels away the layers of this most mysterious of islands. It is a story with origins in ancient myth that embraces two thousand years of reinvention through both conquest and resistance. Mackay leads the reader from ancient amphitheatres through Arab gardens to baroque cathedrals. He delves into the island's great literature, such as Giuseppe di Lampedusa's masterpiece, The Leopard. In its modern era, Sicily has been the site of revolution, the Cosa Nostra and, in the twenty- first century, a focal point in the refugee crisis. The Invention of Sicily is a dazzling introduction to the island, its history and its people.
The liquid continent (800 BC-826 AD) : the colonies of Magna Graecia, Hellenistic culture, Roman-Byzantine occupations
The polyglot kingdom (826-1182) : life in the Emirate, Norman conquest, hybrid architecture
The anti-Christ of Palermo (1182-1347) : an emperor-king, the 'peaceful crusade', Sicily's war of independence
A silent scream (1347-1693) : black death, the Spanish Inquisition, spells and incantations
Decadence and parlous games (1693-1860) : Baroque towns, legendary bandits, folk politics
A revolution betrayed (1860-1891) : Italian unification, the origins of the mafia, the paradoxes of liberalism
A modernist dystopia (1891-1943) : political corruption, fascism and futurism, a colonial administration
The return of the mafia (1943-2013) : the American connection, concrete cathedrals, bunga bunga
Epilogue : 'they are our salvation' (2013-present)
