Sicilian Bandits and the Italian state: Narratives about Crime and (in)Security in the Post-War Italian Press, 1948 – 1950

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article examines how Italian newspapers and illustrated magazines reported the life and crimes of the notorious Sicilian bandit, Salvatore Giuliano. Articles and special features on Giuliano reflected more widely upon Italy’s ability to embrace democracy after the fascist dictatorship, as well as the historic North-South divide. Sensationalist narratives often presented the outlaw as a mythical figure. On occasion, however, they revealed the persistence of late-nineteenth-century racial concepts of Southern ‘difference’. Press coverage of police action against Giuliano, while often critical of the Italian government, also mirrored ideological conflict which had intensified with the onset of the Cold War.