James B. Jacobs notes in his Preface that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is probably the most written-about union – he has written articles and books on the IBT – and unless one believes that bad publicity is better than no publicity, this is not a good omen. Mr. Jacobs is a distinguished professor of law at New York University and director of the law school's Center for Research in Crime and Justice. His co-author, Kerry T. Cooperman, collaborated with Professor Jacobs while a fellow at the center.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of the IBT; virtually every consumer product, domestic or imported, eventually winds up on a truck before reaching the marketplace. While the IBT does not represent most truck drivers, it represents a sufficient number of trailer-truck, 18-wheeler, drivers and related warehouse workers to exercise enormous influence over the United States economy. Thus, while organized crime (OC) influence/control over construction trade unions or restaurant and bartender unions can impact the economy, none save the IBT can bring it to its knees. The political reach of the union is exemplified by the recusal of the US attorney general from a major federal case filed against the IBT, the subject of this book, because of his friendship with the IBT president, and a petition signed by 264 members of Congress in an effort to block the case.

Breaking the Devil's Pact is a case study of United States v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters (U.S. v. IBT), a civil law suit against the IBT under provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute, a 1970 law that includes both criminal and noncriminal provisions. U.S. v. IBT was designed to sever ties between the union and organized crime. An essential feature of this effort was democratization of the union electoral process, from a delegate system to direct voting by members in a secret government-monitored election, an effort that was successful.

The case was brought by US attorney Rudolph Giuliani in 1988 and alleged systemic union corruption and OC-related racketeering over decades. As the authors note, none this was a surprise for a union that had been the subject of media-covered Congressional investigations and hearings.

Union reformers, Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), as self-proclaimed leftists, had been subjected to IBT red-baiting, an attempt to oust their leaders from the union, and, in the finest tradition of the IBT, physical violence.

The book opens with a timeline and an annotated list of principals. RICO is examined using U.S. v. IBT and an assortment of union officials and OC figures. The twists and turns of the case against a background of national politics evoke wrestling with a baby elephant. The case offers a powerful example of why RICO is the most significant statute (actually part of the Organized Control Act of 1970) ever enacted to deal with organized crime.

Leaders of the AFL-CIO expressed concern with this use of RICO – “If they can do it to the IBT …”. There was massive IBT resistance to the “consent decree” that derived from the case, a decree that even the TDU opposed, and that the authors compare to southern resistance to Brown v. Board of Education. Nevertheless, more than two hundred IBT officials and OC members were removed from the union. By 2011, the IBT was rendered free of any significant mob influence.

The outcome of the first-ever fair IBT national election in 1991 resulted in a reform-slate victory, and Ron Carey, head of the UPS drivers’ union, became president. The book evaluates the mixed results of his administration.

Carey's successful 1996 reelection effort against Jimmy Hoffa Jr. included the illegal use of union funds for which he was removed from office and expelled from the IBT. Another election was held and Hoffa, a lawyer and the son of the missing mobbed-up former union president, who had never been a truck driver, easily defeated a reform slate. He has been reelected several times since and remains IBT president. An Independent Review Board set up under the consent decree to root out corruption and OC influence was still in place the year Breaking the Devil's Pact was published.

While supportive of the government's efforts, the authors express concern with some of the court's rulings that they argue undermine Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment protections and rights of association guaranteed by the Constitution. There is an absence of criticism of RICO.

The book presumes knowledge of IBT history and organized crime, which may be a hardship for those without background on these subjects. Breaking the Devil's Pact is a must-read for anyone interested in how the government of a democratic nation can fight organized crime, especially when mobsters assert extraordinary influence over the country's most powerful labor union.