Borgata

Rise of Empire: A History of the American Mafia

Description

A riveting history of the Mafia from 1860s Sicily to 1960s America—as narrated by a former heist expert and Gambino family mobster.

The mafia has long held a powerful sway over our collective cultural imagination. But how many of us truly understand how a clandestine Sicilian criminal organization came to exert its influence over nearly every level of American society?

In Borgata: Rise of Empire, former mobster Louis Ferrante pulls back the curtain on the criminal organization that transformed America. From the potent political cauldron of nineteenth-century Sicily to New Orleans, New York and the gangster paradise of Las Vegas, Ferrante traces the social, economic, and political forces that powered the mafia’s unstoppable rise.

Ferrante’s vivid portrayal of early American mobsters—Lucky Luciano, Vito Genovese, Frank Costello, and Meyer Lansky—fills in crucial gaps of the mafia narrative to deliver the most comprehensive account yet of the world’s most famous criminal fraternity.

Borgata: Rise of Empire—the first in a three-volume epic history—is a groundbreaking achievement from a man who has seen it all from the inside. In this masterful accomplishment, Ferrante takes the reader from the mafia’s inauspicious beginnings to the height of their power as the most influential criminal network in the country.

About the author(s)

Louis Ferrante, author of Borgata: Rise of Empire and Borgata: Clash of Titans, is a former Mafia associate and heist expert who served eight years in prison after refusing to incriminate his fellow Gambino family members. His book Mob Rules was an international bestseller, and his Discovery Channel series Inside the Gangsters Code earned him a Grierson Award nomination for Presenter of the Year. He lives in Florida.

Reviews

“You could fill a whole library with books about the mob and the history of the Mafia. A brand-new edition stands out thanks to the background of its author, Louis Ferrante."

NPR’s Morning Edition

"Borgata is a detailed work that covers major events in American mafia history. The author produces some highly entertaining insights thanks to his background." 

 

The Wall Street Journal

"Pacey, detailed, and gripping. Rise of Empire...resembles John Julius Norwich's trilogy on the Byzantine Empire...Ferrante is a Plutarch of the underworld."

 

Washington Free Beacon, Dominic Green

 "He may be a loss to the criminal fraternity, he is most certainly an asset to the literary world."

Aspects of History (UK)

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