The Mob and the City: The Hidden History of How the Mafia Captured New York

I've probably read more than four dozen books on the Mafia. This is the best of them all. I learned more from The Mob and the City than from any of the others. The author, C. Alexander Hortis, is a lawyer who presents a history of the development of the Mafia in New York City in the twentieth century. He does it with a lawyer's appreciation for the differences between fact, hearsay, rumor, speculation, and fiction.The result is a debunking of many myths about the Mafia that have survived for decades. Mafioso have been drug pushers almost from the beginning, all the while telling each other they were not. They did not rigidly follow their code of silence (Omerta); many of them turned state's evidence when the jig was up, Individual members are not required to murder someone as a ticket to membership, contrary to what all the movies tell us. The biggest myth of all is that Mafioso are men of honor and a band of brothers. To the contrary, they are cutthroats who will turn on each other if a good opportunity presents itself.As with other books on the subject, Hortis emphasizes that Mafia success depended very much on the corruption of police and judges. Unlike other books, Hortis fully explains the Mafia's penetration of labor unions. Where other Mafia books just mention this, Hortis explains it in detail. Much of this will be new to many readers.Hortis rigorously researched this book, utilizing primary sources that other writers could have exploited but didn't. His principal argument is that New York City was perfectly suited to the emergence and flowering of the Mafia in the early twentieth century. He does not spend much time explaining why it is weaker today than ever before. I wish he had. I wish he would.The most delightful chapter is when Hortis provides a detailed description of the 1957 Apalachin conference which, once the police descended upon it, turned Mafia bigwigs into buffoons. The presentation of this is downright funny, and more thorough than any other I've seen.Smoothy written, The Mob and the City is an easy read and (pardon the cliche) a must read for anyone interested in American organized crime.

This was a surprisingly refreshing, thoughtful history of the Mafia. This is NOT your typical "Vince-shot-Tony" pulp mob history. Rather, the book explains how Joe Masseria, Lucky Luciano and the rest of the gang fits into the long-term trajectory of New York.The amount of new information was impressive. Personally, I've never read a Mafia book that quotes the actual words of Joseph "Joe the Boss" Masseria, or detailed the Mafia's major role in gay bars, or try to undertake a fresh "murder investigation" of the killer of Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia. There was even a note from J. Edgar Hoover admitting he was wrong about the Mafia.The book is solidly researched and it turns up lots of new stuff.

If you're interested in a reading a great book that outlines how the Mafia in New York City wound up developing in New York City over the course of several generations, starting in the late 19th Century up till the late 20th Century, then this is the book for you. In particular Hortis examines why the American Mafia developed in New York as opposed to other cities why it lasted as long as it did and how members of this secret society managed to shape the narrative as to how they were viewed as the public finally started to realize they existed. He goes into great detail to show how the Mafioso took advantage not only of New York's congestion, government, it's byzantine legal system, and even, surprisingly to this reviewer, it's geography. Starting from way back they realized that when businesses exist on an island with a very limited number of entrances if you can control the shipping and the ports that the businesses need to survive you control them. Moreover, one reoccurring theme seems to be that whenever the government tried to regulate behavior, from prohibition, to taxes on cigarettes to even gay bars(one of the more fascinating parts of the book is how the laws from the 1930s regulating gay bars led to the mafia control of much of New York City's gay night life and the eventual famous Stonewall rebellion). And yes it does do a revisionist look at the rise of Luciano and questions the common wisdom that Hoover was blackmailed by the Mafia. Hortiss points out that the wisdom seems to have little evidence to back it up. What's more likely is that the Hoover biographers who said Hoover was a really, really bad cop were probably correct and the famous adage "never attribute to malice what can easily be attributed to incompetence". I highly recommend. On another note, readers who enjoyed the HBO series Boardwalk Empire will enjoy Hortis' comparison of the fictionalized versions of Capone and Luciano to their real-life counterparts.

A must read if you are interested in the mob

Excellent history of how the Italian Mafia developed in New York. The use of primary sources makes this book compelling reading, especially for those interested in the Mafia.

One of the best books on gangstersHighly recommended