Bugsy Siegel: And the Postwar Boom (Notorious Americans and Their Times)

Otfinoski, Steve

ISBN 10: 1567112242 ISBN 13: 9781567112245

Publisher: Blackbirch Pr Inc, 2000

Synopsis

A biography of the infamous gangster and murderer who was responsible for the building of the Flamingo hotel in Las Vegas.

About this title

Reviews

Gr 5-9-The saga of this notorious criminal is told against a backdrop of U.S. history from the turn of the century through the 1940s. Otfinoski's account is readable and interesting, and is illustrated with well-chosen, black-and-white photographs. However, in this abbreviated biography, many of Siegel's violent acts are prettified or ignored. Also, there are some errors and inconsistencies. At least half the book consists of information on topics such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the Stock Market Crash, and the Cold War. Some have a clear connection to Siegel's life. Others, such as the California internment camps, do not, and their inclusion disrupts and distracts from the book's narrative flow.-Ann W. Moore, Schenectady County Public Library, NY

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 7-10. It might seem that a book about mobster Siegel and the seedy underworld in which he lived would be little more than a glorification of bad behavior. But thanks to Otfinoski's formidable talents, that's not the case. What emerges here is the destructive folly of overblown ego, bad judgment, and alliances with characters whose loyalty stretches only as far as the bottom dollar. Even better, Siegel's story is embedded in a larger historical context of the depression, World War II, and the postwar flight to suburbia. In sweeping but crystal-clear descriptions, Otfinoski provides a brief, solid view of mid-twentieth-century history that makes plain the mobsters' wayward thinking and activities. Shared in straightforward prose, the revelations of the destructive aftermath of each gangster's tenuous glory vividly verify that, in this arena, people reap exactly what they sow. Roger Leslie
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Blackbirch Pr Inc
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1567112242
• ISBN 13: 9781567112245
• Binding: Library Binding
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112