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The Jonathan Dolhenty Archive |
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The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia by Mike Dash Random House - August 2009
Reviewed by Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty It's about time that someone tackled the history of the early beginnings of the so-called "Mafia" in America and I think Mike Dash was just the historian to do that. This book, which generally covers the period from the 1890s through the 1920s, should definitely appeal to those readers who are fascinated by true-crime stories, real-life criminals, the development of organized crime and, for that matter, American history in general since crime and punishment issues are so intimately a part of that history. This is not your ordinary history "text" and Dash has a talent for writing history that even the most general reader will enjoy and appreciate. True, there is a great deal of detail here, but Dash has the talent to present it in a way that should charm even the most reluctant reader. I am not going to attempt an overview of the material; descriptions and discussions of the content are readily available elsewhere. There are two points, however, I would like to briefly mention because I think they are as relevant today as they ought to have been during the period covered by Dash's narrative. One of them he mentions pretty much in passing and the other he devotes an entire chapter to. The first is the immigration issue and the second is the prohibition issue. In my opinion at least, it should seem obvious to any reader of this book who is also an observer of the current scene in the United States, that the immigration policies of the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century are partly responsible for the development of organized criminal gangs as they evolved during that historical period. The immigration laws and procedures were so lax that many criminals were permitted to enter the United States even though they had serious (and sometimes murderous) criminal records in their native country, which in this specific case was Italy and primarily the island of Sicily. Sadly, it appears that our immigration policies haven't improved all that much since then and now we have "mafiosos" from countries other than Italy which have entered America only to form their own particular organized gangs. The second issue is prohibition, specifically the Eighteenth Amendment which outlawed the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic drinks. As Dash points out, what a gift from the U.S. government to organized crime! An entire industry was literally turned over to organized crime, along with all the profits to be made which could be put to use to underwrite other criminal activities and allow at least the top echelon of dedicated criminals to live the high life. Furthermore, and I think this might be even more important, it made criminals out of ordinary citizens who continued to imbibe in those then illegal beverages. One day you are an ordinary person just enjoying your favorite cocktail or beer and the next day you're a common (maybe "uncommon," actually) criminal. Ridiculous! Now, I might say much the same thing about our current "war on drugs," which seems to me to wallow in the same category. So far, this "war" has not been won and I doubt it ever will be. It supplies criminal gangs (cartels) with immense profits, it promotes violence on a colossal scale, overcrowds our prisons with inmates whose only crime is imbibing in their favorite drug, and makes a mockery out of our current policy of permitting alcohol to be legally drunk and nicotine to be legally inhaled, whereas both of these drugs are among the most dangerous to our physical (and all too often) mental health. It seems our political leaders should have learned something from the Eighteenth Amendment; obviously they didn't. I might suggest to Mike Dash, good historian as he is and also a fine writer, that he now tackle the history of the war on drugs and the criminal gangs which have resulted from that unsuccessful crusade. In the meantime, I can't help but recommend "The First Family" to all the history and true-crime buffs out there in readerland. It's an excellent read and the research is impressive. |
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Enrich your life with a book about politics and current events... Enrich your political & social life with a politics or news magazine... |
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