Elizabeth Hinton is Assistant Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Harvard University.
From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime requires slow and
careful reading for anyone seeking to grasp the full implications
of this exceedingly well-researched work...The book is vivid with
detail and sharp analysis...Hinton's book is more than an argument;
it is a revelation...There are moments that will make your skin
crawl...This is history, but the implications for today are
striking. Readers will learn how the militarization of the police
that we've witnessed in Ferguson and elsewhere had roots in the
1960s...A reader cannot help reckoning with the truth that the
problem of police brutality and mass incarceration won't be
remedied with technology and training. Those of us who believe in
the principles of democracy and justice would do well to witness,
as detailed in Hinton's pages, the shameful theft of liberty in
this so-called land of the free.--Imani Perry"New York Times Book
Review" (05/29/2016)
An outstanding book--clear, compelling, and essential. Hinton
excavates the deep roots of police militarization, surveillance of
minority communities, and the punitive shift in urban policy. Her
argument that liberals were key architects of the war on crime is a
necessary and even urgent corrective to conventional thinking about
mass incarceration.--Matthew Lassiter, author of The Silent
Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South
Hinton's book constitutes the most comprehensive analysis of the
historical roots of mass incarceration to date. Those wanting to
deepen the understanding of this history that they may have gained
from The New Jim Crow, the Golden Gulag and The First Civil Right
would do well to seriously engage this wonderful work.--James
Kilgore"Truthout" (07/05/2016)
Hinton's well-researched book is filled with historical anecdotes
painting a colorful picture of the nation's persistent struggle
with crime since President Johnson coined the phrase 'War on Crime'
more than fifty years ago...From the War on Poverty to the War on
Crime is smart, engaging, and well-argued.--Lauren-Brooke Eisen
"National Review "
The United States now locks up more of its citizens than any other
nation on earth, and racial and economic disparities within the
prison population are deeply troubling. The incarceration rate of
young black men who do not finish high school is nearly 50 times
the national average. How did we get here? Hinton's From the War on
Poverty to the War on Crime brilliantly addresses the question of
mass incarceration in vivid detail and with moral
conviction...Hinton's book is the definitive history of America's
tragic and ultimately failed experiment with mass
incarceration.--Matthew Desmond"Publishers Weekly" (12/02/2016)
A superb work that is a major and timely contribution to the
history of mass incarceration. It powerfully resets and sharpens
the debate among scholars on the interaction of federal and state
dynamics in shaping the modern carceral state.--Jonathan Simon,
author of Mass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision
and the Future of Prisons in America
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