American Purgatory

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 Possessi