Rethinking the American Prison Movement (American Social and Political Movements of the 20th Century)

Rethinking the American Prison Movement depicts the interplay of democracy, enslavement, and imprisonment. Its emphasis on the agency of the incarcerated, and the efficacy of solidarity activism, creates a critical framework for 'rethinking' advocacy and abolitionism. The battles, victories, and losses depicted here, in the violent histories of brutality and slavery, are essential reading for imagining, and fighting for, a future worthy of freedom.

-Joy James, author of Seeking the Beloved Community

From the penitentiaries and workhouses of the nineteenth century to the current prison-industrial complex, the United States has been a world leader in incarceration, discipline, and punishment. Dan Berger and Toussaint Losier examine the social movements that rose to reform or resist the American prison system, with attention to the marginalized activists and their allies who fought for justice both inside and beyond prison walls. This is a necessary and important book.

-Thomas J. Sugrue, author of Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North

Berger and Losier have written a clear and comprehensive overview of organizing within, around, and against prisons in the United States. Interweaving analyses of racism, nationalism, and civil rights activism, the book will become a vital resource in the effort to understand mass incarceration and a fantastic tool for historians, lawyers, and sociologists alike, especially those interested in the tensions between agency and structure.

-Keramet Reiter, author of 23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Solitary Confinement