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Viewing 91–120 of 149 results.
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The Untold Story of Mass Incarceration
Two new books, including ‘Locking Up Our Own,’ address major blind spots about the causes of America’s carceral failure.
by
Vesla M. Weaver
via
Boston Review
on
October 24, 2017
partner
America Must Listen to its Prisoners Before We Make a Major Mistake
The anniversary of two major revolts remind us that tough-on-crime policies have created intense suffering in our prisons.
by
Heather Ann Thompson
via
Made By History
on
September 8, 2017
Our Long, Troubling History of Sterilizing the Incarcerated
State-sanctioned efforts to keep the incarcerated from reproducing began in the early 20th century and continue today.
by
David M. Perry
via
The Marshall Project
on
July 26, 2017
Toward an Environmental History of American Prisons
Like many facets of the American past, mass incarceration looks different if we consider it through the lens of environmental history.
by
Clarence Jefferson Hall Jr.
via
Process: A Blog for American History
on
June 22, 2017
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Mass Incarceration
The rise of mass incarceration in the early 1970s was fueled by white fear of black crime. But the fear of crime wasn’t confined to whites.
by
Adam Shatz
via
London Review of Books
on
May 4, 2017
The Bitter History of Law and Order in America
It has stifled suffrage, blamed immigrants for chaos, and suppressed civil rights. It's also how Donald Trump views the entire world.
by
Andrea Pitzer
via
Longreads
on
April 6, 2017
Revisiting the Ghosts of Attica
A wrenching new book recounts the bloodiest prison battle in our history.
by
Tom Robbins
via
The Marshall Project
on
September 19, 2016
A Black Power Method
Interrogating dominant white perspectives in mainstream media outlets, government records, and in the very definition of what constitutes a credible source.
by
N. D. B. Connolly
via
Public Books
on
June 15, 2016
A Peek at the Golden Age of Prison Radio
"Texas Jailhouse Music" explores a time when Texas prisons promoted rehabilitation through a wildly successful radio show.
by
Maurice Chammah
via
The Marshall Project
on
May 16, 2016
On Stone Mountain
White supremacy and the birth of the modern Democratic Party.
by
Christopher F. Petrella
via
Boston Review
on
March 24, 2016
I Found Prison Data Going Back to 1880. This is How Mass Incarceration Looks In Context
America put drastically more people in prison over the past few decades than at any time in the nation's history.
by
Dara Lind
via
Vox
on
October 11, 2015
Historians and the Carceral State
Examining histories of mass incarceration and views on teaching histories of the carceral state.
via
Process: A Blog for American History
on
June 18, 2015
Prison Plantations
One man’s archive of a vanished culture.
by
Maurice Chammah
via
The Marshall Project
on
May 1, 2015
Don’t Call it ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ Call it a Concentration Camp.
This facility’s purpose fits the classic model, and its existence points to serious dangers ahead for the country.
by
Andrea Pitzer
via
MSNBC
on
July 5, 2025
How Should We Remember Attica?
Orisanmi Burton’s "Tip of the Spear" uncovers the obscured and radical demands of the inmates who staged the 1971 prison uprising—a world without prisons.
by
Charlotte Rosen
via
The Nation
on
May 26, 2025
partner
History Exposes the Flaw in RFK Jr.'s Drug Treatment Plan
Kennedy wants to create "wellness drug rehabilitation farms." But the U.S. tried it before, and it didn't work.
by
Melody Glenn
via
Made By History
on
January 30, 2025
A Prison the Size of the State, A Police to Control the World
Two new books examine how colonial logic has long been embedded within US carceral systems.
by
Marisol LeBrón
via
Public Books
on
December 17, 2024
The Brilliance in James Baldwin’s Letters
The famous author, who would have been 100 years old today, was best known for his novels and essays. But correspondence was where his light shone brightest.
by
Vann R. Newkirk II
via
The Atlantic
on
August 2, 2024
The Peculiar Legacy of E.E. Cummings
Revisiting his first book, "The Enormous Room," a reader can get a sense of everything appealing and appalling in his work.
by
David B. Hobbs
via
The Nation
on
July 22, 2024
The Shoah After Gaza
Jewish suffering at the hands of Nazis are the foundation on which most descriptions of extreme ideology and atrocity have been built.
by
Pankaj Mishra
via
London Review of Books
on
March 21, 2024
Execution By Gas has a Brutal 100-Year History. Now it’s Back.
An Alabama man faces execution by nitrogen gas—the first U.S. execution by gas in a quarter-century, 100 years after the practice began.
by
Randy Dotinga
via
Retropolis
on
January 24, 2024
The Long, Ugly History of Barbed Wire at the U.S.-Mexico Border
The first barbed wire border fences were proposed to keep out Chinese migrants. They’ve been debated for over a century.
by
David Dorado Romo
via
Retropolis
on
December 9, 2023
American Purgatory: Prison Imperialism and the Rise of Mass Incarceration
A new book links the rise of American prisons to the expansion of American power around the globe.
by
Benjamin D. Weber
via
The Appeal
on
October 4, 2023
A Brief History of the Mug Shot
Police have been using the snapshots in criminal investigations since the advent of commercial photography
by
Ellen Wexler
via
Smithsonian
on
April 3, 2023
George Jackson in a Global Frame
The story of George Jackson and his radical politics that challenged the American Government in an age of political repression.
by
Andrew Anastasi
via
Black Perspectives
on
January 24, 2023
partner
Locking Up the Mentally Ill Has a Long History
The prospect of removing people from communities to be put in institutions has been a project of social control.
by
Elliott Young
via
Made By History
on
January 3, 2023
Lessons from the Wobblies for Labor Activism Today
Despite their failure to achieve their ultimate goal, the IWW and its resilient members can be examples for the resurgent unions of today.
by
Ahmed White
via
University Of California Press Blog
on
December 19, 2022
partner
A Formerly Enslaved Woman Helped Found a Key American University
Mary Lumpkin’s life helps us to better understand the post-Civil War push for education.
by
Kristen Green
via
Made By History
on
May 10, 2022
A Fable of Agency
Kristen Green’s "The Devil’s Half Acre" recounts the story of a fugitive slave jail, and the enslaved woman, Mary Lumpkin, who came to own it.
by
Brenda Wineapple
via
New York Review of Books
on
May 5, 2022
partner
Abortion Opponents Are Gunning For Contraception, Too
Efforts to roll back abortion and contraception access aim to control women’s sexuality.
by
Anya Jabour
via
Made By History
on
March 25, 2022
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