This is a new, interesting, and engaging history of organized crime in America and the efforts to defeat it. The authors start off with the famous criminals of the depression era like John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde. Then they trace the rise of first the Mob and then the Mofia. They conclude with stories of Jimmy Hoffa and the rise of the modern gangs. They explain how organized crime has been involved with the labor unions, politics, and even the war effort. As they talk about the crime dynasties, they also discusses efforts, some real, and some just a sham, of the US government to curve organized crime, forcusing on J Edgar Hoover and Robert Kennedy. I found the story very readable and mostly believable, but I did notice that they did not always use the most reliable sources, and included a lot of hearsay. The book is clearly not an academic study of the topic, but a piece of popular non-fiction, focused on the sensational. Still, as a piece of popular literature is succeeds splendidly and I am sure I will recommend it to some of my history-loving adult patrons. (2021, 304 p)
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