Few forces have shaped our world as powerfully - or as secretly - as mafias. Groups such as La
Cosa Nostra the Medellín Cartel New York's Five Families the Japanese yakuza and Russian
vory are notorious endlessly covered in news stories and popular media. Yet when official
histories are written their role in shaping nations economies and societies is rarely
acknowledged. In Mafia: A Global History Ryan Gingeras draws on more than a decade of
research to uncover this suppressed underworld history. Crossing centuries and continents he
introduces legendary figures - Al Capone Pablo Escobar Du Yuesheng - and explores the
conditions cultures and locales that gave birth to modern mafias: Sicily Marseilles New York
Colombia Tokyo. As he reconstructs the rise of a gang or the life of a gangster he also
charts the expanding power of states and the increasingly international reach of trade crime
and law enforcement. After all governments define what is a crime and who is a criminal and
their agents create the strategies used to limit or defend against their threat. Beginning
with bandits and ending with today's 'mafia states' - and the alarming blurring of lines
between gangsters corporations and political leaders - this sweeping narrative traces the
evolution of organised crime in response to industrialisation globalisation and technological
change. By charting the origins consolidation and transformation of mafias Gingeras reveals
not only where contemporary gangsters come from but how they became central to our imagination
and why they are the uncredited architects of the modern world.
