George De Stefano

Welcome to my website.

I am an author, critic, and feature writer whose work has appeared in books, magazines, academic journals, newspapers, and online.

My non-fiction book, "An Offer We Can’t Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America" (Faber and Faber/​Farrar, Straus, Giroux) examines America’s enduring fascination with Italian and Italian American organized crime, as depicted in the movies, on TV, and in fiction. In the book I try to explain why the “Mafia Myth” is one of the longest-running shows in popular culture, and how the mythology relates to the actual history of not only organized crime but of Italian immigration and Italian American history and culture.

The New York Times said, "De Stefano knows the gangster genre inside out, making it a pleasure to follow his thoughts on favorites like ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘Donnie Brasco,’ ‘Goodfellas’ and the ‘Godfather’ trilogy, as well as lesser-known films like ‘A Bronx Tale.’"

The Boston Globe called it "a thoughtful, thorough analysis tracing the evolution of these vexing pop-culture icons, why their ‘'dangerous allure’ remains an enduring attraction, and how they impact perceptions about Italian-Americans.”

And the late lamented Kirkus Reviews said: “A whip-smart meditation on the power of ethnic myth, in this instance the one that supposes that to be an Italian American is by definition to walk among the dons and the goombahs.”

The actor/​director John Turturro wrote this blurb for the book: “For anyone who's interested in the Mafia, An Offer We Can't Refuse is essential reading on the subject.
-- John Turturro, actor/​director

As a writer I’m most interested in culture and politics and their intersection in American life. I’ve written about music (rock, blues, Latin, jazz, “world”), film, radical politics, AIDS activism, race and racism, sexuality and sexual politics. My writing has appeared in The Nation, the Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Newsday, The Advocate, Film Comment, Cineaste, Gay City News (New York) and other print publications. I’m currently a contributor to the websites Popmatters, the New York Journal of Books, Rootsworld, and I-Italy.

In 2011, several of my essays will be published in two academic titles, Mafia Movies (University of Toronto) and The Essential Sopranos Reader (University of Kentucky).

A couple of years ago I made my film debut (I exaggerate) in the documentary, “Beyond Wiseguys” by Pacific Street Films and Beachcomber Films. The doc was shown in all the major PBS markets in 2008 and it still pops up on public television, usually during pledge week, when PBS wants the “ethnics” to write checks.

I’m working on a few new projects – a piece for a planned book about post-WWII Italian immigration, as well as a couple of book proposals. As a fairly typical food-obsessed Italian American, I’ve wanted for some time to write a social history of cucina italiana in America. I hope that will be my next book.

If you find my works here interesting, feel free to shoot me an e-mail through this website. I welcome feedback.