Mario Puzo opened his The Godfather with Honore de Balzac's remark: “Behind every great fortune is a crime.” Americans have rarely been shy about making money in illicit trade, and many of the wealthiest families in America's first century, including the Astors, derived part of their wealth through smuggling or privateering.

Peter Andreas’ book describes smuggling's lengthy history in a well-researched and entertaining account. He sets forth his purpose: “I highlight the profound but often overlooked role of clandestine commerce in the nation's birth, economic development, geographic expansion, and foreign relations, as well as the role of anti-smuggling initiatives in vastly expanding the policing authority and reach of the federal government” (pp. x–xi).

Although Andreas does not generate much new information, his compilation is impressive. He provides sufficient documentation that anyone interested in a particular topic can easily backtrack to their heart's desire. The book will be useful for researchers studying blockades and prohibited goods, but general readers should also find it an excellent read.

When I see a book purporting to reevaluate basic shibboleths, I always worry whether the author will oversell his or her argument. His claim that, “America was born a smuggler nation, and indeed smuggling helped give birth to the nation” (p. 5), skates close to hyperbole, but he does a reasonable job making his claim credible.

Americans have smuggled molasses, rum, grain, lumber, slaves, immigrants, skilled labor, newly developed manufacturing equipment, prostitutes, cotton, munitions, drugs, booze, and a myriad of other commodities. If someone wants something and is willing to pay for it, Americans have usually been willing to supply it. Andreas points out, “even if not always terribly effective, it is the very existence of government controls and efforts to tighten them that makes it necessary for illicit traders to adapt and devise such creative and elaborate evasive maneuvers. Some smuggling activities are so profitable—and sometimes violent—precisely because governments impose and enforce prohibitions” (p. 336). As an example of the role government plays, he argues that trade liberalization has transformed the purpose of smuggling: “smuggling is increasingly about evading prohibitions and bans rather than import duties” (p. 334).

Andreas documents smuggling to evade prohibitions, tariffs, and taxes beginning with the colonial period, when colonists violated the Acts of Navigation and Trade by smuggling molasses from the Caribbean to New England in order to make rum. The trade was the backbone of the northern colonies’ economy, and when the British government attempted to tax and to halt the trade, using ever more heavy-handed tactics, the colonists revolted. While we may never be able to assign weights as to the primary causes of the colonists’ discontent with England, Andreas’ assertion that anti-smuggling edicts were significant in precipitating events seems reasonable.

Andreas draws an interesting parallel between America's industrial espionage and intellectual property theft in its early efforts to industrialize and modern-day concerns about Chinese piracy of ideas. He makes the point that, “Only after it had become a mature industrial power did the country vigorously campaign for intellectual property protection—conveniently overlooking its own illicit path to industrialization” (p. 98).

The United States’ burgeoning strength also led the nation to a volte-face regarding rights of neutrals in the face of a blockade. Smuggling munitions and accoutrements of war helped succor the Continental army in the War of Independence and the Confederate army four score and seven years later. Great Britain and the United States essentially reversed positions on non-belligerents’ rights between the War of 1812 and the American Civil War.

His chapter on smuggling alcoholic beverages to Indian tribes ends rather abruptly before the Civil War. The reader is left to wonder whether the remaining independent tribes received alcohol after the Civil War and what the effects were. Was alcohol a key factor in subduing the Plains tribes?

The book does flag near the end, because the scenarios display recurring characteristics: attempts to suppress smuggling of illicit items resemble a Whack-a-Mole game. Again and again, as authorities crack down on one leak in the blockade or along the border, other leaks develop. Of course, the ingenuity of smugglers often far surpassed the ability of authorities to anticipate and to adjust to changing situations.

Andreas repeatedly argues that suppression leads to higher profits. While this may be true, the argument seems a little simplistic. The costs of evasion surely rose, so, in effect, evading the blockade came to resemble a lottery—a few big winners. The economies of scale in smuggling is an interesting aspect that he alludes to but might have developed in greater detail in a separate chapter on the basic economic principles of smuggling. Bribing officials and procuring boats and contacts for evading border patrols and naval vessels may require large-scale operations.

Andreas ends by arguing that Americans and policymakers need to recognize the history of smuggling in America, “because it corrects for the hubris of the present and the common tendency to view recent developments as entirely new and unprecedented, and because it helps us make sense of why we are where we are and even where we might be headed” (p. 350). This is an apt point, and one that should intrigue nonspecialists.