Organized Crime and the Prohibition

18 February 202406 juillet 2007 by Matt Biscay · Lecture: 7 minutes

This is post 4 of 5 in the series “Prohibition and Organized Crime” This series delves into the historical context of Prohibition in the United States (1920-1933), its impact on society, and how it catalyzed the rise and establishment of organized crime.

Organized Crime in America
Evolution of Organized Crime
Organized Crime : Expression and Repression
Organized Crime and the Prohibition
Organized Crime: Repression and Censorship

Introduction

You cannot rely on newspaper articles. Recently, it featured the confessions of repenting organized crime members, i.e. the distorted truth for their interests. The police distorted the figures to get credit and money from the Federal Government.

Organized crime was considered a kind of un-American activity. Since more gangsters were ethnic (Jews, Russians, etc), calling them “un-American” was a way of dismissing American roots.

In Scarface, the motto “the world is yours” highlights the ironic vision between the American Dream and the gangsters.

The structure of organized crime is that of a bureaucratic and corporate model. It looks like a company organic line, with a complex hierarchy and a division of labour.

Responsibilities are carried out in an impersonal manner and the function is more important than the person.

Organized crime is a mirror of monopoly capitalism and from earlier gangster movies, it is considered as a business.

In Asphalt Jungle, “crime is just a left-handed form of human endeavour”.

The difference between organized crime and any corporation is that you cannot use written support: it relies on secrecy and personal networks.

Organized Crime in America

18 February 202406 juillet 2007 by Matt Biscay · Lecture: 5 minutes

This is post 1 of 5 in the series “Prohibition and Organized Crime” This series delves into the historical context of Prohibition in the United States (1920-1933), its impact on society, and how it catalyzed the rise and establishment of organized crime.

Organized Crime in America
Evolution of Organized Crime
Organized Crime : Expression and Repression
Organized Crime and the Prohibition
Organized Crime: Repression and Censorship

Organized Crime in America (1929 – 1951)

1929: Wall Street crash, which forced gangsters to find a new way of making money in a time of recession. 1951: middle of the Cold War.

Kefauver hearings started the huge mystification of the Mafia, discovering that organized crime was still on in the U.S. First TV debates on organized crime.

In history, gangsters and Organized Crime did exist. Between history and culture, there are matters of ideology: in what way does that interact with what was seen on screen?

Presence of censorship and self-regulation for films. Sometimes people wanted to ban or censor gangster films: interactions between politics, culture and crime. Movies influenced the war against crime.

The history of Hollywood is that of people for and against those movies. Creation of compromises: “production code” (not censorship) to see what people disliked and to escape post-censorship.

But how censorship is possible in the US? (c.f. the first Americans and the liberty of expression). It was considered as a commercial venture. A way of skirting the censorship was to show 2 shots to see a person killed instead of one (the latter was prohibited).

O’Sullivan’s Manifest Destiny

20 December 202306 juillet 2007 by Matt Biscay · Lecture: 2 minutes

This is post 5 of 11 in the series “From the Puritan settlements to the American Civil War (1787-1877)” From the Puritan settlements to the American Civil War (1787-1877)

Introduction

O’Sullivan is one of the most famous journalists in American history. He is the one who coined the expression “Manifest Destiny”.

He was a Democrat and the official spokesman for American expansion (we should remember that Democrats stood for expansion whereas Republicans were against it).

O’Sullivan wrote two important articles: “The Great Nation of Futurity” in 1839 and “Annexation” in 1845, where he added a justification to American expansion.

For O’Sullivan, the two major words were “manifest destiny” and “justification”. That theme of destiny is not new: since the beginning of American history, the Puritans have always emphasized the special destiny of America.

That conception, based on exceptionalism, was essentially religious and lasted for two centuries.

In the 19th century, the theme of destiny became a political ambition, an official policy led by President Polk, who was elected on a manifest destiny platform. The 19th century was more down-to-earth.

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