The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931 (Routledge Advances in American History) [Hardcover]

David Critchley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 19, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0415990300 | ISBN-13: 978-0415990301 | Edition: 1

While the later history of the New York Mafia has received extensive attention, what has been conspicuously absent until now is an accurate and conversant review of the formative years of Mafia organizational growth. David Critchley examines the Mafia recruitment process, relations with Mafias in Sicily, the role of non-Sicilians in New York’s organized crime Families, kinship connections, the Black Hand, the impact of Prohibition, and allegations that a "new" Mafia was created in 1931. This book will interest Historians, Criminologists, and anyone fascinated by the American Mafia.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This work adds significant value to the small collection of competently crafted histories of organized crime. Historians and other interested scholars will appreciate the richness of Critchley's extensive endnotes and selected bibliography. ... All readers will acknowledge the author's research diligence. He has produced a volume that will be cited frequently. This book should be added to library collections at all campuses where departments of history and criminology share space but where they may rarely exchange ideas about how organized crime history can be improved."
-James D. Calder, University of Texas at San Antonio, Journal of American History, vol. 96 no. 3  

"This is one of the most comprehensive studies of the New York Mafia... Essential."
-W.M. Fontane, McNeese State University, Choice

"In an ideal world every writer, whether academic, professional or popular, should consult David Critchley’s book before repeating assertions about the history of organized crime in New York in particular and the United States as a whole. ... Above all the depth of research in The Origin of Organized Crime in America captures the diversity and modesty of scale and outcomes that characterized New York City’s Mafia in its formative years."
-Michael Woodiwiss, University of the West of England, Bristol

"...[W]e genuinely enjoyed reading The Origin of Organized Crime in America. We found that, overall, it proves how historical research on the topic is not merely interesting, but, more importantly, it provides the much needed means towards a re-conceptualization of ‘organised crime’. Critchley’s piece of work is essential reading not only for historians of crime, but also for sociologists and criminologists."
-Georgios Papanicolaou and Georgios A. Antonopoulos, Teesside University, British Journal of Criminology, Advanced Access January 2010

"This book is a well-written and well-researched account of the birth of American organized crime. It might be one of the most compelling and comprehensive discussions of this time period in mob history."
-Dr. Dave Whelan, Chair, Criminal Justice Administration Dept., Delaware Valley College

"Finally, a great book on the pre-history of La Cosa Nostra in the United States!"
-Cyrille Fijnaut, Faculty of Law, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

About the Author

A former British public sector employee, David Critchley received his doctorate from Liverpool John Moores University, and is the author of the 1984 bibliography International Perspectives on Organized Crime and of articles in the journal Global Crime and Chronicle, the magazine of the Historical Society of Michigan. His book The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931 is the product of 10 years of research both in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 362 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (November 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415990300
• ISBN-13: 978-0415990301
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,732,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931, March 7, 2010

By 

Kenneth Calamia - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931 (Routledge Advances in American History) (Hardcover)

Meticulously documented survey, with the authors synthesis. Challenges previous interpretations. Of great value to those interested in this history.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New York City Mafia History Writ Large, October 15, 2009

By 

M. J. Ravnitzky - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931 (Routledge Advances in American History) (Hardcover)

A fascinating, complex, in-depth investigation of the origins of Italian-American organized crime in New York. This book will surely stand as the most comprehensive analysis of a period in American criminology that has long been neglected by historians of the subject, at least on a scale as exhaustive and far-reaching as this work.

Critchley's ten years of painstaking research has brought us nearer to understanding the strange and tortuous links that make up the chain connecting Italian immigration through their Diaspora west to America and the phenomena that is collectively known today as the Mafia.

Tracing its origins from the street gangs of New York led by hoodlums like Paolo Vaccarelli, through the oppressive machinations of Black Hand groups into the counterfeiting gang of Giuseppe Morello, described as the very first 'Boss of Bosses,' the book leads us through a veritable minefield of Italian names, genealogical relationships, inter-marriage connections, murders, assassination attempts and more skulduggery than anything Dan Brown or Robert Ludlam could have hoped to create in their wildest dreams.

Taking us year by year, and gang by gang, the author painstakingly recreates through his masterful research, the way in which Sicilian, and later Neapolitan and Calabria `men of honour' left their homelands and settled into a new life of law-breaking in the biggest city in America. From these early beginnings, emerged the five Mafia crime families that have dominated the city's underworld since the early 1930s.

David Critchley is to be congratulated on creating what will surely be the benchmark for any future investigative writing on this subject. I sincerely hope he continues his research into the criminal world and shares it with the rest of us.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Critchley's masterpiece, July 30, 2009

By 

James Buccellato (Detroit) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931 (Routledge Advances in American History) (Hardcover)

David Critchley's text represents a rare combination of social scientific precision and lively narrative. His work is both factual and entertaining.

There are a number a significant contributions to the study of crime in the text including:

*Critchley disentangles previous writers' attempts at conflating the "Black Hand" with the Mafia.

*The author deconstructs the notion that Luciano transformed the Mafia into a completely cosmopolitan syndicate. In other words, despite Luciano's open-mindedness, the Mafia retained a number of Sicilian traditions.

*Critchely uncovers a number of previously unknown connections between the Sicilian Mafia in New York and the Detroit underworld.

Critchley's new book is an outstanding contribution to the history of organized crime. Scholars will find the text to be an indispensable source for their own research.