George De Stefano

My Works

Music Criticism
Levon Helm's Electric Dirt
The Band's drummer makes an Americana classic
The Beat Goes On
The ancient rhythms of Italy's pizzica thrive in the 21st century
Italian DOCS on the Cuting Edge
A review of a great gig by a new NYC band
The Hugh Tracey Recordings: Colonial Dance Bands and Bulawayo Jazz
Review essay of two African music compilations from the Hugh Tracey archives
non-fiction
Personal Choice, Political Act
The De-Baptism Movement
Nonfiction
An Offer We Can’t Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America
"Finally, a book that helps to explain America’s enduring fascination with the mythology of the Mafia."
--JOHN TURTURRO
Commentary
There He Goes Again
The Pope, Condoms, and Necessary Satire
Look for the Union Libel
GOP and Big Business Smear Labor
Magazine Article
"It's All 'Too Much'"
Labor journalist Sam Pizzigati on American inequality, corporate malfeasance, and Obama's economics
Essay
A 'Finook' in the Crew: Vito Spatafore, The Sopranos, and the Queering of the Mafia Gangster Genre
I presented this paper at "The Sopranos: A Wake," a conference held in New York City in May 2008
Gore Vidal's America
A review of Dennis Altman's book
Nativity Scene
My review of Tobias Schneebaum's final book, Secret Places: My Life in New York and New Guinea, from The Nation
Livin' La Vida Loca
Jaime Manrique's "Eminent Maricones," from The Nation
Music criticism
21st Century W.O.P.s: Roy Paci, Raiz, and the Cultural Politics of Migration
Presented at the EMP Pop Conference in Seattle, April 2008
News Analysis
Justice Denied?
Commentary on the police riot at the 2001 G8 conference in Genoa
History

My book "An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America," published by Faber & Faber/​Farrar, Straus, Giroux


My Works

Levon Helm's Electric Dirt
Many years after the acrimonious breakup of The Band, drummer/singer/mandolinist Levon Helm returns with the best record of his career

Personal Choice, Political Act
Not only a loss of faith motivates former Catholics to choose "de-baptism"

The Beat Goes On
The pizzica, a southern Italian folk music and dance born out of poverty and oppression, now is a foundation for forward-looking new music

An Offer We Can’t Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America
(Faber and Faber/Farrar, Straus, Giroux)

"For years, Italian antidefamation groups have denounced "The Sopranos," as well as such films as "The Godfather" and "GoodFellas," for reinforcing stereotypes ... De Stefano elevates this argument beyond a routine diatribe into 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."
--Boston Globe

There He Goes Again
Sabina Guzzanti, the most outspoken -- and outrageous -- woman in Italy, takes on the Vatican

Look for the Union Libel
The Republicans and their corporate allies -- and one former "Sopranos" actor -- spread lies about the Employee Free Choice Act

"It's All 'Too Much'"
Labor journalist Sam Pizzigati on American inequality, corporate malfeasance, and Obama's economics

A 'Finook' in the Crew: Vito Spatafore, The Sopranos, and the Queering of the Mafia Gangster Genre
David Chase took the mobster genre to places it'd never been, and one of his boldest moves was to introduce a gay gangster to The Sopranos

Italian DOCS on the Cuting Edge
On a night in July, a new band transforms a cultural institute into Manhattan's hippest room

21st Century W.O.P.s: Roy Paci, Raiz, and the Cultural Politics of Migration
I presented this paper at "Shake, Rattle: Music, Conflict and Change," the 2008 Experience Music Project (EMP) annual pop conference in Seattle. The paper discusses Roy Paci and Raiz, two cutting-edge Italian artists who, in an Italy being transformed by immigration, are articulating an expansive and inclusive vision of Italian identity and culture.

Justice Denied?
With the approval of their leaders and right-wing politicos, Italian police brutally beat and tortured protesters at the 2001 G8 conference in Genoa. Now it appears they will escape justice.

“A Burning Hatred for the Ruling Class”: Frank Barbaro’s Radical Life, from the (Brooklyn) Docks to the (New York) Supreme Court
Former New York State Assembly member and State Supreme Court Justice Frank Barbaro, born in 1927 in Brooklyn, New York to immigrant parents from Sicily and Calabria, is one of the last living links to a milieu that has been called “the lost world of Italian American radicalism.” Barbaro achieved success in electoral politics without diluting his radicalism.

The Hugh Tracey Recordings:
Colonial Dance Bands and Bulawayo Jazz

Bulawayo Jazz and Colonial Dance Bands comprise some 50 tracks that Hugh Tracey, the noted English collector of African music, recorded between 1950 and 1952, before liberation movements transfered power from Europeans to Africans.

Gore Vidal's America
Australian political scientist Altman brings an outsider's perspective to his critical assessment of an American literary and political giant

Nativity Scene
Nativity Scene: From New York's Lower East Side to the jungles of the Amazon and New Guinea -- the amazing life of Tobias Schneebaum

Livin' La Vida Loca
Livin' La Vida Loca, from The Nation