American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power
by Thomas Reppetto
185 Members (3.28)
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Description
"Reppetto's book earns its place among the best . . . he brings fresh context to a familiar story worth retelling."--The New York Times Book ReviewOrganized crime--the Italian American kind--has long been a source of popular entertainment and legend. Now Thomas Reppetto provides a balanced history of the Mafia's rise--from the 1880s to the post-WWII era--that is as exciting and readable as it is authoritative.Structuring his narrative around a series of case histories featuring such infamous show more characters as Lucky Luciano and Al Capone, Reppetto draws on a lifetime of field experience and access to unseen documents to show us a locally grown Mafia. It wasn't until the 1920s, thanks to Prohibition, that the Mafia assumed what we now consider its defining characteristics, especially its octopuslike tendency to infiltrate industry and government. At mid-century the Kefauver Commission declared the Mafia synonymous with Union Siciliana; in the 1960s the FBI finally admitted the Mafia's existence under the name La Cosa Nostra.American Mafia is a fascinating look at America's most compelling criminal subculture from an author who is intimately acquainted with both sides of the street. show lessTags
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Author Information
9 Works 292 Members
Thomas Reppetto, a former Chicago commander of detectives, is president of the New York City Citizens Crime Commission, and holds a PhD from Harvard
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2004
- People/Characters
- Capone, Al
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA; Chicago, Illinois, USA
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction, Politics and Government
- DDC/MDS
- 364.1 — Society, Government, and Culture Social problems and social services Crime Criminal offenses
- LCC
- HV6446 .R47 — Social sciences Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Crimes and offenses
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 185
- Popularity
- 176,316
- Rating
- (3.28)
- Languages
- Bulgarian, Dutch, English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 12
- ASINs
- 2
