Gotham Unbound: How New York City Was Liberated From the Grip of Organized Crime

ISBN: 9780814742471 出版年:1999 页码:341 Jacobs New York University Press

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内容简介

Cosa Nostra. Organized crime. The Mob. Call it what you like, no other crime group has infiltrated labor unions and manipulated legitimate industries like Italian organized crime families. One cannot understand the history and political economy of New York City-or most other major American cities-in the 20th century without focusing on the role of organized crime in the urban power structure. Gotham Unbound demonstrates the remarkable range of Cosa Nostra's activities and influence and convincingly argues that 20th century organized crime has been no minor annoyance at the periphery of society but a major force in the core economy, acting as a power broker, even as an alternative government in many sectors of the urban economy.James B. Jacobs presents the first comprehensive account of the ways in which the Cosa Nostra infiltrated key sectors of New York City's legitimate economic life and how this came over the years to be accepted as inevitable, in some cases even beneficial. The first half of Gotham Unbound is devoted to the ways organized crime became entrenched in six economic sectors and institutions of the city-the garment district, Fulton Fish Market, freight at JFK airport, construction, the Jacob Javits Convention Center, and the waste-hauling industry. The second half compellingly documents the campaign to purge the mob from unions, industries, and economic sectors, focusing on the unrelenting law enforcement efforts and the central role of Rudolph Giuliani's mayoral administration in devising innovative regulatory strategies to combat the mob.

Amazon评论
Charlie Stella

I used this book for research for a new novel set in 1973 (after the court ordered banning of Deep Throat). Gotham Unbound provided just enough information to get the job done. I'm pretty familiar with what this book covers. Nevertheless, the detail provided is enlightening.

Christina Diedoardo

Very detailed examination of an area that's often not explored--i.e. how the mafia exploits (and in some cases, creates) economic inefficiencies.

Maeve

It's a book. It's a good study for the mob in NY from how it started, how it operated and how law enforcement brought operations down and how the laws changed.

Gregory A. Butler

This is a very accurate account of the history of labor racketeering in New York City, spoiled only by the anti union bias of the authors. Still, I recommend it with that caveat.

DOPPLEGANGER

"Gotham Unbound", is a well researched treatise on the Mafia's ' financial ' stranglehold through infiltration of many of NYC's industries, that had led to just about every New Yorker making material contributions to the Cosa Nostra through the criminal extortion from employers, resulting in increased cost of goods and services and hitting just about very pocket, particularly disadvantaging the poor, old and infirm.Whilst, the book would well-suit a criminology student, or Trade Union Reformer or a Commerce Regulator and the like, it is not written in the journalese style that would have attracted a wider audience in this potentially gripping subject.

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