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Mafia: A Global History
Few forces have shaped our world as powerfully – or as secretly – as mafias.
Groups such as La Cosa Nostra, the Medellín 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 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 Sicily, Marseille, 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’ – and the 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.
Groups such as La Cosa Nostra, the Medellín 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 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 Sicily, Marseille, 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’ – and the 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.
- GenresHistoryCrimeNonfiction
432 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 12, 2026
12 people are currently reading
224 people want to read
About the author
Ryan Gingeras
13 books22 followersRyan Gingeras was raised in San Diego, California. After receiving his B.A. in History at the University of California, San Diego, he went on to complete his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. He is currently Associate Professor, Associate Chair for Instruction, and the Chair of the Doctoral Committee at the Naval Postgraduate School.
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December 7, 2025
Mafia is a global history of organized crime. From very early bandits to today's organized criminals, it covers a lot of history. It was highly researched to get all the information that was included. The term Mafia was originally applied to the Sicilian Mafia. The term Mafia expanded to encompass other organizations of world wide criminal groups. The movie "The Godfather" and other movies open up people's imagination about the Mafia. Al Capone, Pablo Escobar, Miguel Félix Gallard and South American cartels are also covered. It also gets into the East European Mafias. The book covers everything .If you want to know the long read of organized crime this is the book for you. I would like to thank Simon & Schuster for a free advanced copy to read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review