Warfare in the American Homeland: Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy

by Joy James (Editor)

The United States has more than two million people locked away in federal, state, and local prisons. Although most of the U.S. population is non-Hispanic and white, the vast majority of the incarcerated—and policed—is not. In this compelling collection, scholars, activists, and current and former prisoners examine the sensibilities that enable a penal democracy to thrive. Some pieces are new to this volume; others are classic critiques of U.S. state power. Through biography, diary entries, and criticism, the contributors collectively assert that the United States wages war against enemies abroad and against its own people at home. Contributors consider the interning or policing of citizens of color, the activism of radicals, structural racism, destruction and death in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, and the FBI Counterintelligence Program designed to quash domestic dissent. Among the first-person accounts are an interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad, a Black Panther and former political prisoner; a portrayal of life in prison by a Plowshares nun jailed for her antinuclear and antiwar activism; a discussion of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement by one of its members, now serving a seventy-year prison sentence for sedition; and an excerpt from a 1970 letter by the Black Panther George Jackson chronicling the abuses of inmates in California’s Soledad Prison. Warfare in the American Homeland also includes the first English translation of an excerpt from a pamphlet by Michel Foucault and others. They argue that the 1971 shooting of George Jackson by prison guards was a murder premeditated in response to human-rights and justice organizing by black and brown prisoners and their supporters. Contributors. Hishaam Aidi, Dhoruba Bin Wahad (Richard Moore), Marilyn Buck, Marshall Eddie Conway, Susie Day, Daniel Defert, Madeleine Dwertman, Michel Foucault, Carol Gilbert, Sirène Harb, Rose Heyer, George Jackson, Joy James, Manning Marable, William F. Pinar, Oscar Lòpez Rivera, Dylan Rodríguez, Jared Sexton, Catherine vön Bulow, Laura Whitehorn, Frank B. Wilderson III

Genres: Nonfiction, American, Politics, Theory, Race

376 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Joy James is the John B. and John T. McCoy Presidential Professor of Humanities and College Professor in Political Science at Williams College. She is the author of Resisting State Violence: Radicalism, Gender, and Race in U.S. Culture, and her edited works on incarceration and human rights include States of Confinement: Policing, Detention, and Prisons and Imprisoned Intellectuals: America's Political Prisoners Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion.

Reviews

[Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

about half of these essays are written by academics theorizing on prison and/or blackness, while the other half are writings done be former or current political prisoners in the US, which reflect their personal experiences. The first half of the book i'd say is quite exceptional! definitely i'd recommend it for just reading the first half, which includes interviews of former prisoners Dhoruba Bin Wahad and Eddie Conway (who just got released last month!) about their experiences of COINTELPRO. these interviews were probably the most jarring and worth reading for people engaged in any sort of revolutionary struggle.
there's an essay by current prisoner of war, Oscar Lopez Rivera, on the history of Puerto Rican resistance to US colonialism. The "theory" pieces are also very provocative, including essays by Frank Wilderson III, Dylan Rodriguez, Micheal Foucault and Co. (translated for this book, it'd a critical essay on the execution of George Jackson and exactly what the stakes were for prison society at the time that motivated this execution.)

The second half of the book isn't as strong, but I really liked the essays by Marilyn Buck and Laura Whitehorn, which both explore the effects of prison on women and torture more generally of prisoners in the US.

[Kevin Q · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible essays. Especially Wilderaon's.