She had been murdered in her bedroom. And Robert Bradley was determined to find those responsible! A book that rips naked the hard truth of what can happen to any young woman willing to pay the price for survival in the big city!

In Syndicate Women, sociologist Chris M. Smith uncovers a unique historical puzzle: women composed a substantial part of Chicago organized crime in the early 1900s, but during Prohibition (1920–1933), when criminal opportunities increased and crime was most profitable, women were largely excluded. During the Prohibition era, the markets for organized crime became less territorial and less specialized, and criminal organizations were restructured to require relationships with crime bosses. These processes began with, and reproduced, gender inequality. The book places organized crime within a gender‐based theoretical framework while assessing patterns of relationships that have implications for non‐criminal and more general societal issues around gender. As a work of criminology that draws on both historical methods and contemporary social network analysis, Syndicate Women centers the women who have been erased from analyses of gender and crime and breathes new life into our understanding of the gender gap.

In Syndicate Women, sociologist Chris M. Smith uncovers a unique historical puzzle: women composed a substantial part of Chicago organized crime in the early 1900s, but during Prohibition (1920–1933), when criminal opportunities increased and crime was most profitable, women were largely excluded. During the Prohibition era, the markets for organized crime became less territorial and less specialized, and criminal organizations were restructured to require relationships with crime bosses. These processes began with, and reproduced, gender inequality. The book places organized crime within a gender‐based theoretical framework while assessing patterns of relationships that have implications for non‐criminal and more general societal issues around gender. As a work of criminology that draws on both historical methods and contemporary social network analysis, Syndicate Women centers the women who have been erased from analyses of gender and crime and breathes new life into our understanding of the gender gap.

Hank Messick's chronicle of Ann Drahmann Coppola is set against the background of the pervasive and astounding Syndicate operations in the Cincinnati region, centered across the river in the vice capital of Newport, Kentucky. Following the death of her first husband, gambler Charlie Drahmann, Cincinnati native Ann Augustine married Mike "Trigger" Coppola, Harlem mob gambling racketeer and Syndicate overlord. Between Miami, Florida, and Newport, Kentucky, "Trigger" Mike lavished cash and gifts upon Ann, along with anger-fueled beatings and abuse. A violent and bitter divorce led Ann, despite threats to her life, to agree to testify for the government against Coppola for Federal tax evasion. Escaping to Rome shortly thereafter, she took her own life in 1962.

This collection focuses on generations of early women historians, seeking to identify the intellectual milieu and professional realities that framed their lives. It moves beyond treating them as simply individuals and looks to the social and intellectual forces that encouraged them to study history and, at the same time, would often limit the reach and define the nature of their study. This collection of essays speaks to female practitioners of history over the past four centuries that published original histories, some within a university setting and some outside. By analysing the values these early women scholars faced, readers can understand the broader social values that led women historians to exist as a unit apart from the career path of their male colleagues.