Mafia

Resumen del libro

Few forces have shaped our world as powerfully - or as secretly - as mafias.

Groups such as La Cosa Nostra, the Medellin 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' - andthe 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.

Biografía del autor

Ryan Gingeras es profesor del Departamento de Asuntos de Seguridad Nacional de la Escuela Naval de California y experto en historia moderna de Europa del Este y Oriente Medio. Autor de seis libros, ha publicado sobre una amplia variedad de temas relacionados con la historia y la política en publicaciones como The New York Times o The Washington Post. Como miembro del profesorado de la Escuela Naval, ha participado y contribuido a proyectos de investigación y formación ejecutiva para el Departamento de Defensa de los Estados Unidos. Es autor del libro Los últimos días del Imperio Otomano, 1918-1922.