A groundbreaking look at how America exported mass incarceration around the globe, from a rising young historian
"American Purgatory will forever change how we understand the rise of mass incarceration. It will forever change how we understand this country." -Clint Smith, bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
In this explosive new book, historian Benjamin Weber reveals how the story of American prisons is inextricably linked to the expansion of American power around the globe.
A vivid work of hidden history that spans the wars to subjugate Native Americans in the mid-nineteenth century, the conquest of the western territories, and the creation of an American empire in Panama, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, American Purgatory reveals how "prison imperialism"-the deliberate use of prisons to control restive, subject populations-is written into our national DNA, extending through to our modern era of mass incarceration. Weber also uncovers a surprisingly rich history of prison resistance, from the Seminole Chief Osceola to Assata Shakur-one that invites us to rethink the scope of America's long freedom struggle.
Weber's brilliantly documented text is supplemented by original maps highlighting the global geography of prison imperialism, as well as illustrations of key figures in this history by the celebrated artist Ayo Scott. For readers of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow, here is a bold new effort to tell the full story of prisons and incarceration-at home and abroad-as well as a powerful future vision of a world without prisons.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
Praise for American Purgatory:
"American Purgatory seeks to unite the history of the prison, the history of slavery, and the history of American empire, arguing that they are bound together by carceral violence and by the resistance to it. The climb out of the American purgatory is at least as steep as Dante's mountain, with no guarantee of reaching Paradise. But we have Weber's book, a more comprehensive map than any yet made, with paths upward marked out by those whose knowledge was earned by hard experience."
-Los Angeles Review of Books
"American Purgatory is the sort of book reactionary politicians and organizations are trying to ban. It's full of evidence that many of the attitudes and conditions prevalent in this country from its founding were racist, bigoted, even genocidal."
-The Arts Fuse
"Historian Weber connects the histories of mass incarceration and American imperialism in his wide-ranging and innovative debut. . . . It's an eye-opening and fresh perspective on a pair of hot-button issues."
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A timely consideration of the geopolitical role of American prisons."
-Kirkus Reviews
"For years now, I have turned to Benjamin Weber's work to more fully make sense of American history. He is a historian who has transformed my understanding of the relationship between racism, imperialism, and incarceration. He is a scholar who writes with both moral urgency and intellectual clarity. American Purgatory will forever change how we understand the rise of mass incarceration. It will forever change how we understand this country."
-Clint Smith, bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed
"American Purgatory is a tour de force that brings together the history of racial exploitation and colonialism over four centuries, as well as the various forms of opposition that consistently emerged in response to punitive developments. In doing so, Benjamin Weber provides a critical new framework that can help us envision a more equitable and just world."
-Elizabeth Hinton, author of From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime
"Masterfully researched and written, American Purgatory takes the history of mass incarceration to an entirely new level, as it connects centuries of American expansion and conquest on the North American continent and overseas to the planning logics and actual practices of prison systems. Benjamin Weber's global perspective on 'prison imperialism' as well as prisoners' resistance has produced a field-defining book."
-Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Harvard University
"This outstanding book exposes the surprising connection between America's current age of mass incarceration and the imperial prisons of the past. Showing how racism and colonialism shaped government efforts to incapacitate people who resisted the incursions of U.S. foreign policy, Weber highlights the urgency of understanding the relation between decolonization, antiracism, and the possibility of prison abolition."
-Vincent Brown, author of Tacky's Revolt
"American Purgatory shows how racialized criminalization and incarceration have been the key mechanisms of state building at home and imperialism abroad."
-George Lipsitz, author of The Possessive Investment in Whiteness
"A must-read, American Purgatory makes clear that truly understanding the depth of today's carceral crisis means recognizing it as a global apparatus-one that has always informed how this nation maintains white supremacy as well as manages acts of resistance and self-determination not simply within its own borders, but around the world."
-Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water
"A detailed and passionate account of the practice and responses to U.S. prison imperialism in the past that serves as an intellectual grounding for those engaged in the unfinished work of decolonization."
-V.P. Franklin, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History and Education, University of California, Riverside
"An international history of the U.S. prison problem, guided by the voices of those who never let captivity break their global freedom dreams."
-Dan Berger, author of Stayed on Freedom
"An important contribution to strengthening our prison abolition and anti-colonial movements and our refusal to be defined by criminalization."
-Pam Fadem, California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Sprache
Verlagsort
Produkt-Hinweis
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 218 mm
Breite: 142 mm
Dicke: 30 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-62097-590-9 (9781620975909)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Benjamin Weber is an assistant professor of African American and African Studies at the University of California, Davis. He has worked at the Vera Institute of Justice, Alternate ROOTS, the Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project, and as a public high school teacher in East Los Angeles. The author of American Purgatory (The New Press), he lives in Davis, California.
Autor*in
Abbildung von
Illustrationen
