{"product_id":"the-prison-of-democracy-race-leavenworth-and-the-culture-of-law-paperback","title":"The Prison of Democracy: Race, Leavenworth, and the Culture of Law - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eSara M. Benson\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Built in the 1890s at the center of the nation, Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary was designed specifically to be a replica of the US Capitol Building. But why? \u003ci\u003eThe Prison of Democracy\u003c\/i\u003e explains the political significance of a prison built to mimic one of America's monuments to democracy. Locating Leavenworth in memory, history, and law, the prison geographically sits at the borders of Indian Territory (1825-1854) and Bleeding Kansas (1854-1864), both sites of contestation over slavery and freedom. Author Sara M. Benson argues that Leavenworth reshaped the design of punishment in America by gradually normalizing state-inflicted violence against citizens. Leavenworth's peculiar architecture illustrates the real roots of mass incarceration--as an explicitly race- and nation-building system that has been ingrained in the very fabric of US history rather than as part of a recent post-war racial history. The book sheds light on the truth of the painful relationship between the carceral state and democracy in the US--a relationship that thrives to this day.\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eSara Benson's brilliant study of Leavenworth Penitentiary persuasively argues that what is represented as a contemporary project of mass incarceration has very deep historical roots, that the prison has always been the unacknowledged center of U.S. political history. Most importantly, Benson's work challenges political scientists and activist intellectuals alike to generate new conceptions of democracy unfettered from the anchoring idea of the prison.--Angela Y. Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"The imaginative rereading, through primary sources, of Fort Leavenworth and a host of other subjects including abolitionism, border prisons, North-South relations, and the campaign against Native Americans adds up to an original and exceptionally significant piece of research and scholarship. I enthusiastically recommend \u003ci\u003ePrison of Democracy\u003c\/i\u003e to scholars and students of US history, political science, and sociology.\"--Desmond King, author of \u003ci\u003eSeparate and Unequal: African Americans and the US Federal Government\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"A significant contribution to the literature regarding race, crime, and punishment. The analytical insight that the author provides through a rereading and recentering of Leavenworth is both a contribution to and an immanent critique of racialized notions of mass incarceration.\"--Daniel Kato, author of \u003ci\u003eLiberalizing Lynching: Building a New Racialized State\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSara M. Benson\u003c\/b\u003e is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at San Jose State University and teaches at Oakes College at the University of California, Santa Cruz.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 204\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.5 x 8.9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 16, 2019\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45390933983334,"sku":"9780520296961","price":72.43,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0599\/7255\/0758\/files\/RkNwM21NbHc4K0swOXRMSU9tQTQ2UT09.webp?v=1775127008","url":"https:\/\/infinitylightwa.com\/products\/the-prison-of-democracy-race-leavenworth-and-the-culture-of-law-paperback","provider":"Infinity Light","version":"1.0","type":"link"}