Peter Maas

According to Peter Maas, author of a 1968 book about organized crime, The Valachi Papers, portrayals of gangsters and the Mafia embody and reflect the deepest anxieties, yearnings, wonderment, and imagination of Americans. In the following selection Maas argues that during the 1960s the gangster film supplanted the American western as a source of cultural mythology. Discussing his book and The Godfather (both the novel by Mario Puzo and the film and its sequel by Francis Ford Coppola), Maas asserts that the reason for the popularity of gangster films is that the genre addresses all of the emotions and passions that excite and concern modern Americans.