Publishers Weekly
11/13/2023
Former mobster Ferrante (Mob Rules) supplies a fascinating inside look at the history of the Mafia, the first entry in a three-volume series charting the rise of Italian organized crime. Drawing a straight line from the bond between Italian feudal lords and serfs to the ties between 20th-century Mafia dons and “soldiers,” Ferrante convincingly examines how “men of honor” controlled labor in Sicily, and how, through mass immigration to the United States from 1880 to 1930, they brought those customs stateside. He notes that it was lawless New Orleans where the first American Mafia (or “borgata”) families made their mark, before prohibition facilitated the rise of East Coast families who allied with Jewish gangsters to distribute alcohol. While burning through bios of such infamous names as Dutch Schultz, Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano, Ferrante exhumes some oft-overlooked tales, including that of the close partnership between the New York families and the Navy to protect Eastern shorelines during WWII. Ferrante’s familiarity with Mafia customs gives flesh and immediacy to what could otherwise be a rote historical tome, but he doesn’t draw his authority from affiliation alone: this is a well-researched history in its own right. True crime fans will be captivated. Agent: Tara Hiatt, Orion. (Jan.)
Aspects of History (UK)
"He may be a loss to the criminal fraternity, he is most certainly an asset to the literary world."
Frederick T. Martens
"A compelling narrative explaining the socio-economic conditions that spawned the mafia. It will not and cannot be ignored."
JerseyMan Magazine
A fascinating first volume...smoothly written and impeccably researched...a serious historical look at organized crime written not by an academician or a journalist, but someone who lived the life. His insights are often personal and always informative...It’s more complex, erudite and compelling than anything you’ll hear on a podcast.
NPR’s Morning Edition
You could fill a whole library with books about the mob and the history of the Mafia. A brand-new edition stands out thanks to the background of its author, Louis Ferrante."
The Wall Street Journal
"Borgata is a detailed work that covers major events in American mafia history. The author produces some highly entertaining insights thanks to his background."
Washington Free Beacon
"Pacey, detailed, and gripping. Rise of Empire...resembles John Julius Norwich's trilogy on the Byzantine Empire...Ferrante is a Plutarch of the underworld."
New York Post
Pours out spicy tales of Mob lore to make its management points, an approach most execs couldn't refuse. Mob Rules lays out the ways the rules of the Mafia can be applied in pursuit of straight-world success, injecting historical parallels and real-life anecdotes along the way.
From the Publisher
Praise for Louis Ferrante’s Mob Rules:
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Ferrante shares cogent advice. A colorful and surprisingly practical business primer.” - Publishers Weekly
“One of the wisest and wittiest collections of reflections on life and business ever penned by a wiseguy.
Forbes
"The Mafia Management Guru.” - BusinessWeek
"Leadership lessons from the mob. Ferrante's book is worth the read...colorful tales of mob life.
Crain's New York Business
"Wiseguy's Wisdom. Worthwhile, sometimes humorous tips on how to succeed in business.” - New York Daily News
"He never got an M.B.A. but ex-mobster Louis Ferrante learned enough about business on the street.
CTV Canada
"Mob Rules is a collection of lessons that can be gleaned from the long and colourful history of the Mob and applied to the legal business world.
Nicholas Pileggi
"It's very rare when someone from Lou's world has the heart of a writer. Criminal experiences don't usually lead to great insights. Louis Ferrante is different—his talent for storytelling shines through in Mob Rules.
New York Post
Pours out spicy tales of Mob lore to make its management points, an approach most execs couldn't refuse. Mob Rules lays out the ways the rules of the Mafia can be applied in pursuit of straight-world success, injecting historical parallels and real-life anecdotes along the way.
George "Fat George" DiBello
"Louis Ferrante is a wise guy in every possible sense of the word. His wisdom is extraordinary and his writing style immaculate.” - David Black, screenwriter and producer for Law & Order
"I knew John Gotti better than anyone, and if he were alive today, Mob Rules would be his favorite book.
Rita Gigante
"Finally, Lou brings all of the Mafia's wisdom and business acumen together in Mob Rules and shows readers how they can apply the mob's best practices to their own businesses.
Kirkus Reviews
2023-09-19
A former mobster excavates mafia lore.
Ferrante, the author of Mob Rules and former mafia associate and heist expert, promises that this first volume of a planned trilogy will be free of misinformation repeated over the years by multiple mafia historians. He begins at the beginning, with the germination of the mafia in medieval Sicily under French occupation. From there, he winds into the American mafia’s peak from the 1930s to the 1960s. Ferrante’s primary focus is the rise and fall of Charles “Lucky” Luciano and his associates and adversaries, including his partner, Jewish organized-crime legend Meyer Lansky; their West Coast counterpart Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel; and Luciano’s successors, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. Drawing on his experience as an ex-mobster, Ferrante argues that mafia standards of loyalty, secrecy, and revenge call for rewriting some of the mob’s most famous myths with a better grasp of the details and motivations involved. He peppers his stories with enlightening morsels about the conditions that facilitated the rise and impunity of organized criminals, touching on topics like ingrained corruption in New Orleans, mobsters’ pride in being Americans, and the surprising discernment the mafia showed in choosing which illicit activities to pursue. However, the tangled and tumultuous nature of mob-based relationships and activities is echoed by a text filled with long threads of names and events that weave in and out of order, with stiff segues between episodes. Exhausting play-by-plays of a wide array of crimes fill pages, while others are simply alluded to. This approach frustrates rather than clarifies readers’ understanding of the mafia’s complicated strands of business, political, and personal relationships, which snaked around Prohibition and World War II, into and out of Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Hollywood, and Cuba.
An intermittently entertaining but rudderless exploration of the early history of the mafia.
