The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America

by Albert Fried

This book tracks the rise and fall of an underworld culture that bred some of America's greatest racketeers, bootleggers, gamblers, and professional killers, examining the careers of such high-profile figures as Meyer Lansky and Benjamin Bugsy Siegel.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Crime, Jewish, American History, True Crime, New York

351 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Rise And Fall Of the Jewish Gangster In America
Revised Edition by Albert Fried.

This book is a pretty matter of fact run-down of
the glory days of Jewish gangsterism in America
and the causes of it.
The book starts in 1912 and goes both backwards
and forwards from there and explains the
correlation between being extremely poor
immigrants and being likely to become a Gangster.
It also delves into the massive amount of
JewishProstitution . The book is written in a
very pulp noir kinda way, and uses all the kinds
of nick names you wanna hear like Lefty Louie,
Kid Twist and Little Hymie to name three.
The book also goes into detail on how to by an
American election in the days of Tammanny hall
and the Mugwumps. The book ends up reading like
the script to several mafia movies, Once Apon A
Time In America in particular.
A totally engrossing read it also shows how
people "Mature" out of gangsterism, and
communities move out of it, only to be replaced
by the next wave of immigrants, wherever they may
come from.
Yes yet another good buy on my trip to Chicago at
the start of the Year.

[Jay Resnick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book.

[Elie Carver · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dry, but ultimately really interesting. It was fun to learn about what one could call my heritage (New York-born Jew). Four stars.

[Lisa Shininger · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read this after my freshman year in college. No idea why it suddenly popped into my brain last week but it was definitely time for a re-read. It's as fascinating as I remember but gets bogged down a bit by the 2/3 mark. Fried sticks to the academic, mostly, but these stories don't let him avoid the lurid altogether.

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly academic look at organized crime. Well-researched, written and organized. Sadly sticking to the evidence cuts down on some of the fun of the less responsible and more anecdotal sources.

[Vader · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish

[Seymour Zager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history of Jewish mob characters.