Professor John Dickie (born 1963) is a British author, historian and academic who specialises in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Education

Born in Dundee, he was brought up in Leicestershire and went to

Loughborough Grammar School , religion = Christian , head_label = Headmaster , head = Dr Daniel Koch , r_head_label = Chaplain , r_head = Revd E J York , chair_label = Chairman ...

. He studied Modern Languages at Pembroke College, Oxford, obtaining a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

with

first class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

. He continued his studies at the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

, completing a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

and becoming a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

Career

He is Professor of Italian Studies at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, where he has taught since 1993. According to the ''American Historical Review'' :

John Dickie is a leading member of a group of young historians working in British universities with a distinctive revisionist thrust to their work on modern and contemporary Italian history. They do not shy away from theory, whether historiographical or broadly social scientific, and are happy to challenge past and current monstres sacres, from
Denis Mack Smith Denis Mack Smith CBE FBA FRSL (3 March 1920 – 11 July 2017) was an English historian who specialized in the history of Italy from the Risorgimento onwards. He is best known for his biographies of Garibaldi, Cavour and Mussolini, and for hi ...
to
Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''Whit ...
.

Bibliography and publications

Dickie is the author of various books: * ''Darkest Italy. The Nation and Stereotypes of the Mezzogiorno, 1860-1900'' (New York, 1999), * ''Cosa Nostra: A History Of The Sicilian Mafia'' (2004), A "fine achievement" according to Professor Jane Schneider, in ''European History Quarterly'' (2008) 38#1 p.129-132. * ''Delizia! The Epic History of Italians and their Food'' (2007), * ''Una catastrofe patriottica. 1908: il terremoto di Messina'' (''A Patriotic Catastrophe. 1908: The Earthquake of Messina'', Rome, 2008), * ''Blood Brotherhoods: the Rise of the Italian Mafias'' (2011) * ''Mafia Republic: Italy's Criminal Curse. Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta and Camorra from 1946 to the Present'' (2014). In 2020 he published ''The Craft – How the Freemasons Made the Modern World''.

Research interests

He states his research interests as "Representations of the Italian South,

Italian nationalism Italian nationalism is a movement which believes that the Italians are a nation with a single homogeneous identity, and therefrom seeks to promote the cultural unity of Italy as a country. From an Italian nationalist perspective, Italianness is ...

and national identities, cultural history of

liberal Italy Liberalism and radicalism have played a role in the political history of Italy since the country's unification, started in 1861 and largely completed in 1871, and currently influence several leading political parties. During the first decade ...

, cultural and critical theory,

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

Italian food Italian cuisine (, ) is a Mediterranean cuisine David 1988, Introduction, pp.101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques developed across the Italian Peninsula and later spread around the world together with wave ...

Awards

In 2005

President of the Italian Republic President most commonly refers to: * President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

awarded him the ''Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana'' (Commander of the

Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity The Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity ( it, Stella della solidarietà italiana ) was founded as a national order by the first President of the Italian Republic, Enrico De Nicola, in 1947, to recognise civilian and military expatriates or ...

), an Italian knighthood.

Personal life

In 2005 he married the author Sarah Penny; they have three children.

References

External links

* http://www.johndickie.net * https://www.ucl.ac.uk/selcs/people/italian-staff/john-dickie {{DEFAULTSORT:Dickie, John 1963 births People educated at Loughborough Grammar School Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Sussex Historians of the Sicilian Mafia Academics of University College London Living people Writers from Dundee People from Dundee