Mafia: A Global History

‘His ambitious new book … takes in organised criminals everywhere from Noo Yawk’s goodfellas through to the Chechen mob and the Medellín cocaine cartel, via Ned Kelly, Jamaican Yardies and the Yakuza … Gingeras writes well and joins the historical dots … for those who want to know how mafias began – especially those as fascinated by it all as Gingeras – this book may prove to be an offer they can’t refuse’ * Telegraph *
‘A book of such hugely ambitious scope … Gingeras is good on ways in which crime responds to the needs of particular cultures at particular times … and deploys contextual detail to vivid effect … Gingeras paints a convincing picture of an interconnected, increasingly diversified and truly global business which is tightly and apparently irrevocably intertwined, in so many different ways, with the apparatus of the state itself’ * Financial Times *
‘A history of mafias, suffused with violence, intrigue and secrecy, this is gripping, essential, global and just plain fascinating’ – Simon Sebag Montefiore
‘An engaging book … Mafias have “reflected” and “helped define the making of the modern world”, Mr Gingeras contends, taking readers from classical Rome to modern Las Vegas to bolster his argument’ * Economist *
‘Gingeras considers the rise of clientelist crime and corruption in southern Italy, the US, Southeast Asia and Latin America from the early nineteenth century to the present. He offers a Damon Runyonesque gallery of shakedown artists, payola sharks and nickel-and-dime mobsters … impressive … well-researched … Mafia is an excellent history of all things murderous and mobster’ * TLS *
‘American professor and historian Ryan Gingeras charts a steady course between academic respectability and formulating the odd unexpected sentence that will rock you on your heels … The predominant tenor of this impressive book is not doom and gloom but sober realism. Mafias will be with us until men turn into angels’ * Sydney Morning Herald *
‘Drawing on more than a decade of research to uncover the suppressed underworld history of mafias, historian Ryan Gingeras presents his findings in this global history of elusive organised crime … From ancient bandits to modern-day cartels, the history of the underworld reveals the true history of a nation, one that is often suppressed … the sweeping narrative follows the evolution of the criminal underworld across the globe’ * Press Association *
‘A wide-ranging history of wannabe Corleones and other kindred criminals … A revealing study of organized crime and its many forms’ * Kirkus Reviews *
‘Historian Gingeras (The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire, 2022) offers a historical deep dive into the murky world of gangland, from the gritty streets of the Five Points area of early twentieth-century New York City to ravaged, post-WWII Japan; from drug running to human trafficking. A valuable historical reference on organized crime’ * Booklist *
‘Gingeras’s riveting book delves into the murky origins, effects and legacies of the most terrifying figures in the history of crime’ * The i *

Ryan Gingeras is a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and is an expert in modern Eastern European and Middle East history.

He is the author of six books, including The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire and Sorrowful Shores: Violence, Ethnicity, and the End of the Ottoman Empire 1912–1923, which was shortlisted for numerous book prizes.

He has published on a wide variety of topics related to history and politics in publications such as Foreign Affairs, New York Times, Washington Post, Times Literary Supplement, and Foreign Policy.

As a faculty member of the Naval Postgraduate School, he has participated and contributed to research and executive education projects on behalf of the US Department of State, Department of Energy, and Department of Defense.

In addition to speaking German, Spanish, and Turkish fluently, he also possesses working knowledge of Ottoman Turkish, Albanian, Macedonian, and Greek.

Ryan was born in New York City but has spent much of his life in California. He currently lives with his wife and children in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

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