Blood & Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America

by Stephen Fox

In shocking and compelling detail, Stephen Fox tells the stories of America's crime families - who killed whom in the pursuit of power. He writes, of course, of the Mafia and of the Irish mobsters who specialized in politics and labor, the Jews who cornered gambling and financial manipulation, the Asian, Latin, and Jamaican drug gangs of the 1980's. The pervasiveness of organized crime in American life - from Hollywood studios to sports arenas, from Roosevelt oval office to the book depository in Dallas in 1963 - is brought figures who silently condoned criminal activities into the roles of crime-fighters. Measuring familiar myths against revealing new evidence, Blood and Power is the ultimate chronicle of America's criminal life in this century.

Genres: History, True Crime

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Walt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Fox is basically a journalist hopping from topic to topic without much passion, he has written one of the better books on organized crime.

The difference here is that while most books in the genre are written by amateurs and are rife with conjecture and little evidence; Fox wrote down solely what he could prove with multiple authoritative sources.
The writing is dry and the chapter long; but his sources are authoritative and he can defend anything in the book. Consequently, he is usually interviewed for the many shows on the mob.

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

All I can say about this one is that it takes talent to write a boring book about the Mafia.

[TAMOJIT GHOSH]

Great author - I saw Fox on a video on joe Bonano - wish him luck and hope to read more of his work in the future