The Big Con

The Big Con
Author :
Publisher : Anchor
Total Pages : 337
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780307755728
ISBN-13 : 030775572X
Rating : 4/5 (72X Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Big Con by : David Maurer

Download or read book The Big Con written by David Maurer and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2010-10-27 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic 1940 study of con men and con games that Luc Sante in Salon called “a bonanza of wild but credible stories, told concisely with deadpan humor, as sly and rich in atmosphere as anything this side of Mark Twain.” “Of all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat,” wrote David Maurer, a proposition he definitely proved in The Big Con, one of the most colorful, well-researched, and entertaining works of criminology ever written. A professor of linguistics who specialized in underworld argot, Maurer won the trust of hundreds of swindlers, who let him in on not simply their language but their folkways and the astonishingly complex and elaborate schemes whereby unsuspecting marks, hooked by their own greed and dishonesty, were “taken off” – i.e. cheated—of thousands upon thousands of dollars. The Big Con is a treasure trove of American lingo (the write, the rag, the payoff, ropers, shills, the cold poke, the convincer, to put on the send) and indelible characters (Yellow Kid Weil, Barney the Patch, the Seldom Seen Kid, Limehouse Chappie, Larry the Lug). It served as the source for the Oscar-winning film The Sting.


The Big Con Related Books

The Big Con
Language: en
Pages: 337
Authors: David Maurer
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-10-27 - Publisher: Anchor

GET EBOOK

The classic 1940 study of con men and con games that Luc Sante in Salon called “a bonanza of wild but credible stories, told concisely with deadpan humor, as
The Biggest Con
Language: en
Pages: 382
Authors: Irwin A. Schiff
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 1977 - Publisher: Hamden, Conn. : Freedom Books

GET EBOOK

"Painstakingly researched and documented, The Biggest Con offers irrefutable evidence of the criminal and destructive nature of the Federal government. Conserva
The Modern Con Man
Language: en
Pages: 242
Authors: Todd Robbins
Categories: Humor
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-04-08 - Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

GET EBOOK

A whimsical resource for low-risk grifters provides a treasury of humorous tips and historical facts about the art of the con, in a volume that outlines easy-to
The Con Men
Language: en
Pages: 254
Authors: Leo Gough
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-08-27 - Publisher: Pearson UK

GET EBOOK

Financial fraud, whether large or small is a persistent feature of the financial markets. If you scratch the surface of the investment world you’ll find a con
The Big Con
Language: en
Pages: 362
Authors: Nate Hendley
Categories: Law
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-09-06 - Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

GET EBOOK

This book examines a broad range of infamous scams, cons, swindles, and hoaxes throughout American history—and considers why human gullibility continues in an