Critchley, David. The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931. New York: Routledge, 2009 Schneider, Stephen. Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons, 2009

Abstract

Social science research, for better or worse, is at its most convincing when looking backward. Most social science disciplines try to explain what has taken place, and the repercussions of past decisions and events. Predictability is in many ways more art than science. When it comes to the study of organized crime, history becomes a potent tool. Because research on current events and trends is so difficult, history offers a good lens by which to trace the grand patterns of organized crime. The literature on organized crime tends to be divided in two camps, those that believe that the threat is serious and real (for example, Garyaud 2008), and skeptical scholars who suggest that the rhetoric serves political ends (for example, Beare 2003). The two views are irreconcilable. Looking backward does not solve the debate, but it does help make sense of organized crime as a social phenomenon. For this essay, we review two books that study the history of organized crime in North America. Stephen Schneider’s Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada presents four hundred years of Canadian organized crime history. David Critchley’s The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931 focuses more narrowly on the American mafia’s formative years when, it is often argued, American-Italian organized crime came of age. What do these two books tell us about organized crime? How do they inform our reading of Canadian and American history? The two books present a nuanced view of organized crime, neither exaggerating nor diminishing the political, economic or social role of organized crime. The authors challenge existing conventional views pertaining to Canada, the United States and the role of organized crime in the history of the two countries. Schneider argues that organized crime has played an important role in shaping Canada, dispelling the myth of a peaceful and law-abiding nation. Critchley, on the other hand, suggests that American mafia history has generally been overplayed–the reality does not match the purported image. The books are, in fact, a nice contrast. Schneider brings organized crime into Canadian history while Critchley does partially the opposite, reconsidering the place of the mafia in American history. Clearly, history is never as simple as it first appears.