"Reppetto's book earns its place among the best . . . he brings fresh context to a familiar story worth retelling." --The New York Times Book Review

Organized crime--the Italian American kind--has long been a source of popular entertainment and legend. Now Thomas Reppetto provides a balanced history of the Mafia's rise--from the 1880s to the post-WWII era--that is as exciting and readable as it is authoritative.

Structuring his narrative around a series of case histories featuring such infamous characters as Lucky Luciano and Al Capone, Reppetto draws on...