Groups of people who work or hang out together have been with us since the dawn of humanity, and gang or something like it (ging) has been an honorable word used to refer to them since the dawn of the English language. Around the time when English speakers were beginning to settle in North America, gang also acquired the specific meaning of "a group up to no good," as in a gang of housebreakers or thieves. It was apparently an American idea, though, to use the negative connotations of gang in reference to politicians. John Quincy Adams wrote bitterly of "the united gang of Calhoun and Jackson conspirators against me" in 1833.
But the great American invention related to gang was gangster. We find it in an editorial in the Columbus [Ohio] Dispatch in 1896: "The gangster may play all sorts of pranks with the ballot box, but in its own good time the latter will get even by kicking the gangster into the gutter."
The prohibition of alcoholic beverages enacted in 1919 as the Eighteenth Amendment offered expanded opportunities for gangsters to make money and come to the attention of the public. In Chicago, Al Capone wielded such ruthless power that to this day, throughout the world, the city is associated with gangsters. Gangster stories and movies became a favorite genre.
Mafia Name given to a number of organized groups of Sicilian brigands in the 19th and 20th cent. Unlike the Camorra in Naples, the Mafia had no hierarchic organization; each group operated on its own. The Mafia originated in feudal times, when lords hired brigands to guard their estates in exchange for protection from the royal authority. The underlying assumption of the Mafia was that legal authorities were useless and that justice must be obtained directly, as in the vendetta. Italian attempts to curtail the Mafia have suffered from political corruption and the assassination of judges. Through emigration the organization spread to the United States (where it was sometimes called the Black Hand). It is involved in many illegal operations—trade in narcotics, gambling, prostitution, labor union racketeering—and certain legal enterprises, such as trucking and construction, in the United States. In Nov., 1957, more than 60 of its alleged leaders were surprised at a secret meeting at Apalachin, N.Y. About one third of them were convicted of obstructing justice, but the convictions were reversed on appeal. In recent years, the Mafia has been linked with money-laundering and police corruption and has also been hampered by defections. While slowing its activities in extortion and racketeering in the 1980s and 90s, the contemporary Mafia has expanded into such white-collar criminal enterprises as fraud in health insurance, sales of prepaid telephone cards, and illegal stock market deals
Wishlist hos Axelmusic: http://www.axelmusic.com/wishlist.php?uid=11140
#41 PredatorX 18 år siden
Tjaeh det er ihvertfald ikke Coens bedste film...
#42 Jakobsen 18 år siden
#43 filmz-Kadann 18 år siden
I min bog, er det rigtig god fest. :)
#44 filmz-Angel Eyes 18 år siden
#45 filmz-BranDBorG 18 år siden
For mig er en gangster en lidt mere hårhuddet type som typisk ligger lidt længere ned i hierakiet under Mafiaen som er den absolutte top...
#46 filmz-Bruce 18 år siden
Origin: 1896
Groups of people who work or hang out together have been with us since the dawn of humanity, and gang or something like it (ging) has been an honorable word used to refer to them since the dawn of the English language. Around the time when English speakers were beginning to settle in North America, gang also acquired the specific meaning of "a group up to no good," as in a gang of housebreakers or thieves. It was apparently an American idea, though, to use the negative connotations of gang in reference to politicians. John Quincy Adams wrote bitterly of "the united gang of Calhoun and Jackson conspirators against me" in 1833.
But the great American invention related to gang was gangster. We find it in an editorial in the Columbus [Ohio] Dispatch in 1896: "The gangster may play all sorts of pranks with the ballot box, but in its own good time the latter will get even by kicking the gangster into the gutter."
The prohibition of alcoholic beverages enacted in 1919 as the Eighteenth Amendment offered expanded opportunities for gangsters to make money and come to the attention of the public. In Chicago, Al Capone wielded such ruthless power that to this day, throughout the world, the city is associated with gangsters. Gangster stories and movies became a favorite genre.
Mafia
Name given to a number of organized groups of Sicilian brigands in the 19th and 20th cent. Unlike the Camorra in Naples, the Mafia had no hierarchic organization; each group operated on its own. The Mafia originated in feudal times, when lords hired brigands to guard their estates in exchange for protection from the royal authority. The underlying assumption of the Mafia was that legal authorities were useless and that justice must be obtained directly, as in the vendetta. Italian attempts to curtail the Mafia have suffered from political corruption and the assassination of judges.
Through emigration the organization spread to the United States (where it was sometimes called the Black Hand). It is involved in many illegal operations—trade in narcotics, gambling, prostitution, labor union racketeering—and certain legal enterprises, such as trucking and construction, in the United States. In Nov., 1957, more than 60 of its alleged leaders were surprised at a secret meeting at Apalachin, N.Y. About one third of them were convicted of obstructing justice, but the convictions were reversed on appeal. In recent years, the Mafia has been linked with money-laundering and police corruption and has also been hampered by defections. While slowing its activities in extortion and racketeering in the 1980s and 90s, the contemporary Mafia has expanded into such white-collar criminal enterprises as fraud in health insurance, sales of prepaid telephone cards, and illegal stock market deals
#47 zombieman 18 år siden
#48 mr gaijin 18 år siden
#49 El vez 18 år siden
#50 filmz-Exitium 18 år siden