The Kosher Capones: A History of Chicago’s Jewish Gangsters. Joe Kraus

Joe Kraus’s history of Jewish gangsters in Chicago details a small part of the complex world of organized crime. The Kosher Capones: A History of Chicago’s Jewish Gangsters is aptly titled even though none of the figures Kraus discusses approached the reputation of the notorious Al Capone. The title also signals the tone of the work, which both recalls the nostalgia so often associated with organized crime and signals the author’s objective, academic approach. Kraus’s careful reading of primary and secondary sources, combined with his lucid prose, results in an engaging study that convinces the readers that we would all do well to pay greater attention to crime, its origins, and consequences. Kraus came to his topic via his own family history; his mother asked him to look into the murder of her father and the history of his grandfather’s brothers. Although Kraus’s thorough research relied heavily on the local...