Rebecca McLennan, The Crisis of Imprisonment: Protest, Politics, and the making of the American Penal State, 1776-1941 From the American Revolution to World War II the United States penal system underwent vast transformations, specifically in regards to prison-based punishment. Rebecca McLennan’s The Crisis of Imprisonment traces the evolution of the penal system and argues that… Continue reading →

Natalie Ring, The Problem South: Region, Empire, and the New Liberal State, 1880-1930   The United States South was ridden with problems following the Civil War and Reconstruction—at least according to northern Americans.  From roughly 1880-1930 there was a desire to “readjust” and “uplift” the South to successfully reconcile the nation. Unfortunately, reconciling the nation… Continue reading →

W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction: an essay toward a history of the part which Black folk played in the attempt to reconstruct democracy in America, 1860-1880   W.E.B. Du Bois, an imminent African American scholar of the early twentieth century, published a groundbreaking interpretation of black influence during the era of Reconstruction in his 1935… Continue reading →