From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime

Co-Winner of the Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A New York Times Book Review Editors Choice A Wall Street Journal Favorite Book of the Year A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year A Publishers Weekly Favorite Book of the Year In the United States today, one in every thirty-one adults is under some form of penal control, including one in eleven African American men. How did the land of the free become the home of the worlds largest prison system? Challenging the belief that Americas prison problem originated with the Reagan administrations War on Drugs, Elizabeth Hinton traces the rise of mass incarceration to an ironic source: the social welfare programs of Lyndon Johnsons Great Society at the height of the civil rights era. An extraordinary and important new book. Jill Lepore, New Yorker Hintons book is more than an argument; it is a revelationThere are moments that will make your skin crawlThis is history, but the implications for today are striking. Readers will learn how the militarization of the police that weve witnessed in Ferguson and elsewhere had roots in the 1960s. Imani Perry, New York Times Book Review