Bugsy Siegel

The Dark Side of the American Dream

Bugsy Siegel
Michael Shnayerson
RRP:
NZ$ 40.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 32.79
Hardback
h217 x 160mm - 248pg
2 Mar 2021 US
International import eta 10-30 days
9780300226195
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
In a brief life that led to a violent end, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (1906-1947) rose from desperate poverty to ill-gotten riches, from an early-twentieth-century family of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side to a kingdom of his own making in Las Vegas. In this captivating portrait, author Michael Shnayerson sets out not to absolve Bugsy Siegel but rather to understand him in all his complexity. Through the 1920s, 1930s, and most of the 1940s, Bugsy Siegel and his longtime partner in crime Meyer Lansky engaged in innumerable acts of violence. As World War II came to an end, Siegel saw the potential for a huge, elegant casino resort in the sands of Las Vegas. Jewish gangsters built nearly all of the Vegas casinos that followed. Then, one by one, they disappeared. Siegel' s story laces through a larger, generational story of eastern European Jewish immigrants in the early- to mid-twentieth century.
"Fast-paced and absorbing. . . . With a keen eye for the amusing, and humanizing detail, [Shnayerson] enlivens the traditional rise-and-fall narrative. "-Jenna Weissman Joselit, New York Times Book Review "[A] brisk-reading chronicle of Siegel' s life and crimes. "-Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal "A pacey and thoughtful biography. . . part of Yale University Press' s excellent Jewish Lives series"-The Economist "This latest, punchiest and most compact biography of Siegel arrives in the Yale ' Jewish Lives' series. . . Shnayerson' s brief life of Bugsy is a fun, absorbing read that helps make sense of an emotionally complex gangster. And it' s just long enough to fill one of those transatlantic flights many of us are waiting to take again. "-Scott Bradfield, The Spectator "An amazing job. I learned a lot. A great book about real gangsters when gangsters were real. "-Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguy "Insightful, well-written, and carefully researched, this is the best and most complete biography of the notorious gangster Benjamin ' Bugsy' Siegel in print. "-Robert Rockaway, author of But He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters "A wonderful exploration of the dark side of the American dream via Bugsy Siegel, the personification of the dark side and the dream. Just as stylish as Bugsy himself. A fabulous book. "-Rich Cohen, author of Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams
Michael Shnayerson became a contributing editor at Vanity Fair in 1986 and is the author of eight books on a range of nonfiction subjects, including Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9780300226195
Published: 2 Mar 2021
Published In: United States
Imprint: Yale University Press
Publisher: Yale University Press
Format: Hardback
Height: 217mm
Width: 160mm
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 476g
Pages: 248

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