Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series

Rothstein, by David Pietrusza is an essential read for anyone wanting to understand the creation of modern organized crime. Arnold Rothstein was much more than a gambler or "the man who fixed the world series". He was the financier for the most despicable criminal enterprises, from white slavery to drug dealing. His ingenious method of being the financier for a cut, kept him out of the actual operations, but gave him both influence and filled his pockets with millions. He was a political and criminal fixer without equal and it can be said that it was his skill at negotiating settlements that held back the crime wars that came after his death. He was arguably the most pervasive influence peddler and fixer of the 20th century. He was the mentor and supporter of some of the most famous criminals in American History. Meyer Lansky, Charles Luciano, Ben Seigel, Legs Diamond, Dutch Shultz and many more were mentored, financed and let loose on society by A.R. (as he was called.
In Mr.Pietrusza's biography, this elusive enigma comes to life as a flesh and blood reality. Some of his information is new and extremely enlightening and this book is well worth the read. My only criticism is minor, with some of the logic he uses when analyzing the death of Rothstein. These meet his conclusions, while overlooking some other options that might exist. This is not to say his conclusions are wrong, but merely not as thoroughly thought out as they might have been. But these flaws are to be expected as there is much not available to the historian. Not only is history elusive, in Rothstein's case, where he kept detailed notes and records, much was destroyed to cover up the breadth and corruption that connected politicians, judges, cops, lawyers, gamblers and crooks, local,state and national, that was so vast as to take ones breath away.
Rothstein the book, is, like it's subject, intriguing, revolting, mysterious, compelling and haunting. Like the time in which he lived, Rothstein was a unique product the like of which will never come again. A one-of-a-kind type that was created by time and place and opportunity. He was a genuine genius, it is just a sad tragedy that he turned it to amoral, immoral advancement. If the twenties roared, they roared with the impact of Arnold Rothstein.

Arnold Rothstein was a cold and evil man. He was born in New York to Abraham Rothstein who was a wealthy businessman. Rothstein hated his elder brother who became interested in rabbinical Judaism. Arnold was a difficult and willful child who loathed school because his teachers knew more than he did on the subject under discussion! Rothstein was a whiz at math and soon became enamored of gambling. He left his family and became a high roller at Saratoga Springs. Rothstein is important because as he rose to power in the criminal underworld he viewed crime as a corporate business. He became a kingpin for labor rackets. floating crap games, casinos and betting enormous sums on horse raising, sports and extortion. He served as a middleman bringing together corrupt politicians and mobsters. He loved to hang out with showgirls (having several mistresse) thugs, bookies, newspaper reporters (he was friendly with Damon Runyan), boxers and wealthy men wanting to gamble for big money. He loved to spend time in Times Square and Saratoga Springs where he owned a big gambling establishment. He married but was a cheater. His greatest claim to fame is being the gambler who bankrolled the 1919 fix of the World Series in which members of the Chicago White Sox surrendered the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.Rothstein never served time but was murdered for his failure to pay off a huge gambling loss. This happened in November 1928. He was also involved in the international drug trade.
The author is a famous expert on baseball and the 1920s. David Pietrusza has written a very detailed biography of Rothstein and the colorful and cruel times in which he lived. The book is filled with countless characters who seem as if they stepped out of the musical Guys and Dolls. A fictional portrait of Rothstein was rendered by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his classic novel The Great Gatsby.
This book is a well documented with research on a greedy and cruel man. Rothstein did not drink or smoke loving milk and pastries but he was a scourge on society The author has done an excellent job and the book is worth your time and attention.

After getting about 25% through the Kindle version of this book, I started to feel increasingly frustrated reading it. It felt "choppy" and not particularly well-written. Worse, it seemed "jumbled," jumped around chronologically and was hard to follow. I had no real sense of just HOW Arnold Rothstein had risen to his position of power. Having no experience or knowledge of gambling on card games or horse races, I found some of the gambling references confusing. The original press descriptions of horse races seemed superfluous. The many different characters were tough to follow after being introduced only briefly.

I actually began to question whether my own reading comprehension was at fault, so I came back here to read some of the negative reviews, which unfortunately I had ignored before purchasing the book. Although the negative reviews are not many in number, there are several that articulated exactly what I was feeling about the book; in fact, I borrowed some of their phrasing above, as it crystallized some of the vague dissatisfaction I was experiencing. I am going to stop reading this book, and I rarely do that, but it is just too long to justify spending anymore time on it. I have already purchased Leo Katcher's work instead. Unfortunately, it is not available for the Kindle so I will have to wait a few days before I can start reading it.

I wish I could give this book a better review than I can. The author certainly enjoys writing about his subject and the period in history during which Rothstein lived.

If you want to know about the Black Sox scandal of 1919, don't read this book. Instead "Eight Men Out" is a better, more readable treatment. "Rothstein" promises the reader a solution to the mystery of the World Series scandal, but, if it was in there, I couldn't find it. This part of the book is in fact the least well written. I found it utterly confusing.

The book is better as a history of the Tammany system of corruption rampant in New York during the early 20th Century. If you had friends, you could get away with murder. If you didn't, you might get framed for murder.

The book is also good as a light handed history of New York state gambling, especially of horse races in and around upstate New York.

I don't want to be too harsh. I enjoyed reading the book but it fell short in several key areas.

A very interesting look into the life of Arnold Rothstein that goes beyond his exploits as a millionaire gambler, hustler, loan shark and man about town. While there is plenty of that you also get a look at what turned the child into the man.

Even more fascinating is the history of New York City that is a large part of the story. The insights into politics and the political bosses, the corruption of the NYPD, courts, judges and just about everyone down to dog catcher are unbelievable. The history of various neighborhoods (I had no idea Times Square was once the center of gambling in NYC), the rise is such Mafia figures as Lucky Luciano, and just the back stories of people who were in Rothstein’s orbit are all wonderful .

And then there is the murder of AR and who did it and why. The murderer was….

....apart from being a world-class fixer of events and a high-stakes gambler. The author is also a world-class historian and an engaging writer in telling Rothstein’s story from his boyhood days up until his murder. There is a fascinating psychology to this character who had his hand in everything during the 20s and 30s.

I listened to the audiobook!

Not bad but could have benefited from more editing. What is fascinating is how few pictures there seem to be of Rothstein. And how quickly he finally fell given how well he had maneuvered to stay alive and out of jail for most of his life. But what a cold blooded snake

Loved the book. Very insightful and full of suspense. It was like watching a gangster movie. The way the author stars off at the place where a.r. Was shot and goes back to that place tells of the genius of the writer. He did his homework very well. This book is one of many that shows that the world of crime and politics is one in the same; no one person is neither innocent nor immune from the machinations of that that is organized crime once he she it they make the decision to get involved.

I've always been a very big fan of history, especially that of sports -- and organized crime. This book contains both, of course much more on the crime.

Anyway, Arnold Rothstein was a brilliant, fascinating character, and this book delivers a wealth of information on him and his dealings, as well as introduces the reader to a multitude of new characters along with the man himself.

* Be mindful though; this book is not without its shortcomings. However, the issues are not with the story, but with the writing and, especially, the editing (or lack thereof). Suffice it to say, the author will not be teaching any English writing courses any time soon. As the book progresses, the writing and even sentence structure gets worse and worse, and it's really shocking that none of these myriad mistakes were caught in the editing process. Perhaps the author doesn't have an editor, and instead chose to take on the responsibility himself. That's just speculation on my part, but if that's the case, he should REALLY hire one going forward, because whomever DID do the editing for this book did an atrocious job. This whole issue may or may not bother some readers, but I thought I'd at least mention it.

Again though, the book and its story are great, and you can't deny the author's knowledge of his subject. The aforementioned writing/editing issues are the only reason I rated this with 4 stars, rather than 5.

If you're a fan of the show Boardwalk Empire or almost any sort of history -- particularly that of early 20th century America or true crime, I definitely recommend this book. It's pretty easy to read, but very hard to put down.

Bought for a friend. Says books is great, very informative. Loves it!