McMafia, Misha Glenny
McMafia, Misha Glenny
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McMafia
A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld

Author: Misha Glenny

Narrator: John Lee

Abridged: 9 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/08/2008


Synopsis

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the deregulation of international financial markets in 1989, governments and entrepreneurs alike became intoxicated by forecasts of limitless expansion into newly open markets. No one would foresee that the greatest success story to arise from these events would be the globalization of organized crime.

McMafia is a fearless, encompassing, wholly authoritative investigation of the now proven ability of organized crime worldwide to find and service markets driven by a seemingly insatiable demand for illegal wares. Whether discussing the Russian mafia, Colombian drug cartels, or Chinese labor smugglers, Misha Glenny makes clear how organized crime feeds off the poverty of the developing world, how it exploits new technology in the forms of cybercrime and identity theft, and how both global crime and terror are fueled by an identical source: the triumphant material affluence of the West.

To trace the disparate strands of this hydra-like story, Glenny talked to police, victims, politicians, and members of the global underworld in eastern Europe, North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, China, Japan, and India. The story of organized crime’s phenomenal, often shocking growth is truly the central political story of our time. McMafia will change the way we look at the world.

About The Author

Misha Glenny was educated at Bristol University in England and Charles University in Prague. He is also the author of The Rebirth of History, The Fall of Yugoslavia (which won the Overseas Press Club Award in 1993 for Best Book on Foreign Affairs), and The Balkans, 1804—1999. He has contributed to most major U.S. and European newspapers and current affairs magazines and is regularly consulted by U.S. and European governments on Balkan issues. Misha Glenny lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Edward on July 14, 2008

Things I learned from reading this book: Illegal trade accounts for 20% of global GDP. If you want a hit done right and cheaply, hire the Serbs. The fall of communism is the single most important event accounting for the rise of global criminal syndicates. There are a lot of brothels in Tel Aviv. Bollywo......more

Goodreads review by Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) on July 30, 2020

This review must start with a confession to my darling “big sis” Julie: I found this book because I watched the TV series starring our beloved James Norton, saw it was based on a book and hunted down a copy, only to find out the book contains a few anecdotes which were the basis of the show’s plot (......more

Goodreads review by Tim on October 29, 2012

I was initially wary of this account of contemporary organised crime. Misha Glenny's 'Fall of Yugoslavia' had frustrated me as good narrative but weak analysis. I need not have been so concerned. Yes, Glenny still does not quite 'get' that he is being fed a line sometimes by people who have an inter......more

Goodreads review by Matthew on December 17, 2008

I'm generally sceptical of books that purport to change one's view of the world, but when one of them does come along, its a welcome surprise. McMafia ranks one of the two best books I've read so far this year -- the other being Alan Weisman's The World Without Us -- in the very personal terms of ha......more

Goodreads review by Daisy on April 06, 2021

Maybe I spend too much time immersed in crime, maybe its the fact that this book is over a decade old bur really it didn't tell me anything new. The opening section was a less in depth version of Klein's The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism where the chaos that followed the fall of co......more


Quotes

“A terrifying tour of the violent underworld of globalized crime.”
–New York Post

“Eye-opening…Engrossing.”
–The Miami Herald

“Besides demonstrating Glenny's courage, his book exhibits at least two other characteristics of special importance: First, he provides insightful sociological perspectives about why certain nations spawn especially widespread and virulent organized crime networks. Second, he explains how policies in certain nations (mainly, but not exclusively, the United States) generate unanticipated ripple effects in the structures of other nations' criminal underworlds…Searing.”
–The Seattle Times

“A bravura piece of globe-trotting reportage, "McMafia" traces the origins and maps the reach of every major known transnational criminal network operating in the 21st century . . . engrossing.”
–San Franciso Chronicle

“Immensely informative and more than slightly scary.”
–The Washington Post

“A vividly recounted journey through a dozen of the world's most potent gangs, cartels and transnational mafias.”
–The Wall Street Journal

For anyone who wants to understand the 21st century, this illuminating and page-turning book is essential reading.
–Emma Thompson

“‘Behind every great fortune,’ said Balzac, ‘there lies a great crime.’ Misha Glenny has updated this aperçu for our own time.”
–Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great

A riveting and chilling journey . . . Readers yearning for a deeper understanding of the real-life, international counterparts to The Sopranos need look no further than Glenny's engrossing study.”
Publishers Weekly
 
“In this well-researched and riveting account, Glenny does for crime what he did for the Balkans. He dissects the international criminal organizations that run much of the world’s economy and explains how the criminal underworld has both benefited from and contributed to globalization.”
–Joseph Stiglitz, author of Making Globalization Work