Mafia: A Global History

‘A history of mafias, suffused with violence, intrigue and secrecy, this is gripping, essential, global and just plain fascinating’ – Simon Sebag Montefiore‘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 A valuable historical reference on organized crime’ * Booklist *‘Gingeras’s riveting book delves into the murky origins, effects and legacies of the most terrifying figures in the history of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 *‘From ancient bandits to modern hackers, organised criminals have long been unheralded architects of the evolution of state and society. Ryan Gingeras offers us an important and eye-opening guide to the way the underworld and upperworld shape each other’ – Mark Galeotti, author of Homo Criminalis: How Crime Organises the World

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 such publications as Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Washington Post, and International Journal of Middle East Studies, among others. As a faculty member of the Naval Postgraduate School, he has participated and contributed to research and executive education projects on the behalf of the US Department of State, Department of Energy, and the 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.