Mafia: A Global History
Ryan Gingeras
Feb 2026 · Simon and Schuster · Narrated by Nathan Osgood
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14 hr 38 min
Unabridged
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‘Gripping, essential, global and just plain fascinating’ Simon Sebag Montefiore
'A book of such hugely ambitious scope’ Financial Times
‘Mafia is an excellent history of all things murderous and mobster’ TLS
Few forces have shaped our world as powerfully – or as secretly – as mafias.
Ryan Gingeras draws on more than a decade of research to illuminate a suppressed underworld history. Crossing centuries and continents, he introduces legendary figures – Al Capone, Pablo Escobar, Du Yuesheng – and explores the conditions, cultures and locales that gave birth to modern mafias: Sicily, Marseille, New York, Colombia, Tokyo.
Beginning with bandits and brigands, and ending with today’s ‘mafia states’ – and the alarming blurring of lines between gangsters, corporations and political leaders – this sweeping narrative traces the evolution of organised crime in response to industrialisation, globalisation and technological change. By charting the story of mafias worldwide, Gingeras reveals not only where contemporary gangsters come from, but also how they claimed such a central role in our cultural imagination, and why they are the uncredited architects of the modern world.
'A book of such hugely ambitious scope’ Financial Times
‘Mafia is an excellent history of all things murderous and mobster’ TLS
Few forces have shaped our world as powerfully – or as secretly – as mafias.
Ryan Gingeras draws on more than a decade of research to illuminate a suppressed underworld history. Crossing centuries and continents, he introduces legendary figures – Al Capone, Pablo Escobar, Du Yuesheng – and explores the conditions, cultures and locales that gave birth to modern mafias: Sicily, Marseille, New York, Colombia, Tokyo.
Beginning with bandits and brigands, and ending with today’s ‘mafia states’ – and the alarming blurring of lines between gangsters, corporations and political leaders – this sweeping narrative traces the evolution of organised crime in response to industrialisation, globalisation and technological change. By charting the story of mafias worldwide, Gingeras reveals not only where contemporary gangsters come from, but also how they claimed such a central role in our cultural imagination, and why they are the uncredited architects of the modern world.
‘Gripping, essential, global and just plain fascinating’ Simon Sebag Montefiore
'A book of such hugely ambitious scope’ Financial Times
‘Mafia is an excellent history of all things murderous and mobster’ TLS
Few forces have shaped our world as powerfully – or as secretly – as mafias.
Ryan Gin...
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About the author
Ryan Gingeras is a professor in the Institute of Regional and International Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School, and is an expert in modern Eastern European and Middle East history. He is the author of seven 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, politics and security in publications such as Foreign Affairs, New York Times, Washington Post, Times Literary Supplement and Foreign Policy. He currently lives with his wife and children in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Ryan Gingeras is a professor in the Institute of Regional and International Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School, and is an expert in modern Eastern European and Middle East history. He is the author of seven books, including The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire and Sorrowful Shores: Violence,...
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