Borgata
Rise of Empire: A History of the American Mafia
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4.5 • 23 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
A riveting history of the Mafia from 1860s Sicily to 1960s America—as narrated by a former heist expert and Gambino family mobster.
The mafia has long held a powerful sway over our collective cultural imagination. But how many of us truly understand how a clandestine Sicilian criminal organization came to exert its influence over nearly every level of American society?
In Borgata: Rise of Empire, former mobster Louis Ferrante pulls back the curtain on the criminal organization that transformed America. From the potent political cauldron of nineteenth-century Sicily to New Orleans, New York and the gangster paradise of Las Vegas, Ferrante traces the social, economic, and political forces that powered the mafia’s unstoppable rise.
Ferrante’s vivid portrayal of early American mobsters—Lucky Luciano, Vito Genovese, Frank Costello, and Meyer Lansky—fills in crucial gaps of the mafia narrative to deliver the most comprehensive account yet of the world’s most famous criminal fraternity.
Borgata: Rise of Empire—the first in a three-volume epic history—is a groundbreaking achievement from a man who has seen it all from the inside. In this masterful accomplishment, Ferrante takes the reader from the mafia’s inauspicious beginnings to the height of their power as the most influential criminal network in the country.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former mobster Ferrante (Mob Rules) supplies a fascinating inside look at the history of the Mafia, the first entry in a three-volume series charting the rise of Italian organized crime. Drawing a straight line from the bond between Italian feudal lords and serfs to the ties between 20th-century Mafia dons and "soldiers," Ferrante convincingly examines how "men of honor" controlled labor in Sicily, and how, through mass immigration to the United States from 1880 to 1930, they brought those customs stateside. He notes that it was lawless New Orleans where the first American Mafia (or "borgata") families made their mark, before prohibition facilitated the rise of East Coast families who allied with Jewish gangsters to distribute alcohol. While burning through bios of such infamous names as Dutch Schultz, Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano, Ferrante exhumes some oft-overlooked tales, including that of the close partnership between the New York families and the Navy to protect Eastern shorelines during WWII. Ferrante's familiarity with Mafia customs gives flesh and immediacy to what could otherwise be a rote historical tome, but he doesn't draw his authority from affiliation alone: this is a well-researched history in its own right. True crime fans will be captivated.
Customer Reviews
Mistakes
He says in the book that the cotton club welcomed blacks. Otherwise it was an enjoyable read
Great, detailed, early history of mob.
Really enjoyed this book. Over the past few years I’ve delved deep into this genre and have read many “mob” books and found Al D’Arcos book compelling because of the attention to mafia history and historical details.
This book far surpasses that with its detailed history of the American mafias beginnings in Sicily, touching on early mob in New Orleans, and other areas not normally focused on in these types of books.
I’ve read them all and this is in my Top 3 favorite mob books of all time. The history of the mafia is the history of Italian American and the history of NYC and this book does a great job bringing it all together.
Highly recommend.
Great detail
Great book. But not sure if factually true.