MS-13: The Making of America's Most Notorious Gang by Steven Dudley My rating: 5 of 5 stars The power of Steven Dudley's MS13: The Making of America's Most Notorious Gang, comes from its exhaustively researched truth-telling. In an era when journalists and investigative reporters are routinely negated, wished away by spontaneous tweets, and branded as "fake news" by anyone who is inconvenienced by facts, Dudley's work is a refreshing return to a reality formed by truthful reporting. The author does not instruct us on who we should accept, celebrate or condemn; instead, he places his readers squarely in the center of a richly populated, and very real, world, where we must make sense of things ourselves.Thanks to Dudley's skills, both as a tireless research scholar and deft writer, MS13 is a book full of well-drawn characters -- real people on all sides of the difficult questions posed by gangs -- their horrific causes, as well as the terrible consequences wreaked by their existence. In an age when truth seems to have been foresworn in deference to sound bites and tweets, Steven Dudley's book is a welcome return to thoughtful examination of one of society's most pressing questions: What are the factors that cause the tragic transformation of people's lives into an existence of crime, violence, and desperation, which, in turn, tears at society's remaining fabric? More importantly -- or at least more immediately -- we the readers of this impressive work must take this truth and put it to use. We must do what we can to affect change that will, it is hoped, prevent the desperate cycle of violence from repeating itself indefinitely. View all my reviews