Theft of the Nation: The Structure and Operations of Organized Crime in America - Hardcover

Cressey, Donald Ray

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060500263 ISBN 13: 9780060500269

Publisher: Harpercollins, 1969

Synopsis

Documented indictment of organized crime in America which discusses the methods of operation of twenty-four "families" who have infiltrated business as well as local, federal and state government

About this title

About the Author

The late Donald R. Cressey was professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and served as organized-crime consultant to the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. Educated in Minnesota, Iowa, and Indiana, he was dean of the College of Letters and Science at Santa Barbara, Professor of Sociology and chairman of the department of anthropology-sociology at UCLA, visiting professor in the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University, and in the law faculty of the University of Oslo.

Review

“This book is the most thorough and certainly the most analytical account of organized crime yet published. Although written principally as a trade-book, the author brings his usual scholarship and high standards to his task. The book is free of cheap sensationalism and bizarre anecdotes which sometimes blight work on this subject. As the title indicates, Cressey investigates the structure and operations of organized crime and, therefore, gives us one of the few sociological accounts of what may be America’s biggest business.”

—Frank R. Scarpitti, Social Forces

“This book is a description and analysis of the Mafia or Cosa Nostra in this country as a nationwide, organized criminal cartel and confederation which is increasingly moving in to “own” and corrupt legitimate business and government.... [A] very useful book.”

—Richard R. Myers, American Sociological Review

“[Professor Cressey’s] material on the operation of organized crime is fascinating.”

—Gerard Evans, International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-)

Edition details

• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Publication date: 1969
• ISBN 10: 0060500263
• ISBN 13: 9780060500269
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 370