The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man

pooled ink Reviews:4.5 Stars“Of all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat.”THE BIG CON is a casual narrative that eases you into the world of the modern (1940s) confidence man as its pages offer you true third party insight with the occasional tale or anecdote from those who actively play the game. Educational, amusing, informative, and a remarkably quick read this book provides all that is needed for the casual enthusiast.Non-fiction is pretty hit-or-miss for me but the narrative that spun this research together drew me in immediately. It felt so conversational I became eager to hear him out and learn what was being offered. And what Maurer was offering was a base of history, a trove of secrets, and a smile of stories straight from the horse’s mouth.Read my FULL review here: [...]

This book is very interesting. It details the many scams used by con men, and also the lives these men have led. I found the book fascinating and would recommend it.

I am not generally a reader of factual books. I prefer Fantasy, Sci-Fi, etc. I am, however, a HUGE fan of The Sting movie. It's for that reason that I gave this book a purchase.This is a fantastic read. I know it was the basis for the Newman/Redford classic "The Sting", and I can hear the music soundtrack in my head as a I read.This is not a story, it's the author's account as he delved into the depths of the grift in the 1940s. It's a slice of Americana that seems to have been forgotten and well worth a read and a gift to a friend.What I particularly loved the most about this book was reading about the history of the con and how it evolved over time. I also enjoyed understanding the different roles each person had and how it fit into the overall tale being told to the mark.

The book is an incredible piece of academic research. However, for the casual reader the book is a bit of a challenge to get through.Some pages I had to read and re-read to understand what was really being said (due to the antiquated jargon used).However, the author does try to explain and there is plenty of repetition. I learned a lot but it was a bit too dry for me.Torn between a 3 and a 4 star review but leaning more to the 3 stars as I did not really enjoy reading it.

I have now studied the psychology and traditions of scams and cons pretty extensively, but no matter whos biography or what book of tricks I read, this volume still stands out as the richest resource on the history and techniques of confidence games.Part history, part mythology, part study of practice through the terminology of criminals, and part explanation of main families of long cons though stories and examples, this book is surprisingly readable and entertaining. But first of all it is thorough and informative.Some readers may be concerned that this book was written in the early 20th century. Surprisingly, it's more charming on its anachronisms than dry. The author was an academic, but here he is a storyteller.

I was a bit worried that the book would be too dated - mostly in the language. I was expecting something like Dashiell Hammett. Enjoyable, but you're constantly reminded that those days are gone. That's not the case here. The book could have been written yesterday from a language perspective, and any linguistic idiosyncrasies are specific to the language of the con man.As some people have noted, it can be repetitive, but that's because most "big" cons (those where the con men work in large teams and have established locations) are very similar in essence; only the execution and specifics are different.I found it to be very interesting, both from a technical perspective on how things were done, as well as a sociological perspective.

Stories about con men and criminals are good to use as anecdotes and metaphors. The Big Con does this well and if that was all it did it would be worth having. What I didn't realize is that Maurer's book is the definitive academic piece on early 20th-century crime. As in, he also wrote an entire book on the linguistics of the underworld (which is interesting to think about considering how commonly we use their phrases - grift, rag, con, the fix, blowing him off) and wrote the Britannica article for "slang." You would probably be well served to explore a few of the biographies of the characters in the book, although the 48 Laws of Power does a good job with some of the highlights.The one thing to take away: con men exploited the desire of wealthy people to get something for nothing and their willingness to break the rules to do so. Avoid that weakness, even if we don't have to worry about roving bands of con men as much anymore.

Like some others, I found this book very repetitive. But I also found parts of it strangely unbelievable. I recognize it is carefully researched but some of the descriptions seemed so implausible. For example, one of the cons later in the book consists of two guys working a mark in a card game; one guy loses intentionally, then stands casually behind the mark, looks at his cards, and signals to the other guy. And they do this over and over. Really? In a room with nobody else, this wouldn't become obvious? There were other examples I couldn't square with the fact that the material was supposedly to carefully sourced.

Fun read

Großartiges Buch über BIG CONs und SMALL CONsGenaues Verzeichnis der Con-Lingo (was ist ein Mark? Was ist ein shop?)War sehr spannend und lehrreich - auf jeden Fall eine Empfehlung für jeden, der sich für Betrügerei interessiert.

GREAT BOOK

iv not read this yet i dont even know where iv put it i might read it some day have no idea what its about i must have read something to make me buy it

though old, it is an interesting book, both from an historic reasons and "sociologist" point of view, because "cons" and frauds are nowadays more widespread than ever