The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Michelle Alexander

Jan 2020 · The New Press

About this ebook

One of the New York Times’s Best Books of the 21st Century

Named one of the most important nonfiction books of the 21st century by Entertainment Weekly‚ Slate‚ Chronicle of Higher Education‚ Literary Hub, Book Riot‚ and Zora

A tenth-anniversary edition of the iconic bestseller—"one of the most influential books of the past 20 years," according to the Chronicle of Higher Education—with a new preface by the author

"It is in no small part thanks to Alexander's account that civil rights organizations such as Black Lives Matter have focused so much of their energy on the criminal justice system."
—Adam Shatz, London Review of Books

Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Most important of all, it has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by Michelle Alexander's unforgettable argument that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." As the Birmingham News proclaimed, it is "undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S."

Now, ten years after it was first published, The New Press is proud to issue a tenth-anniversary edition with a new preface by Michelle Alexander that discusses the impact the book has had and the state of the criminal justice reform movement today.

Ratings and reviews

excellent book, very informative. even though, the ignorance of those hateful people who live in denial about systemic racism tries to put the blame on is blacks pictures and history and the suffering of our ancestors and community speaks for itself. a lot of you ignorants/illiterates, racists and bigots will never accept the reality check. yall are who you all are. Mom always told me when they show you how they feel and who they are BELIEVE them. I definitely believe racism is still around. not closely or remotely as savage as it was during the jim crow era but yep is pretty bad yall. ain't nothing changed. and the sad thing is they deny it and we keep on seeing it. God will prevail. read the book is a very good book and it shows yall how they used to do blacks in the south. pure truth and no lie.

Somehow two of the most ignorant yet most critical reviews somehow drifted to the top of the review board for this book. These people offered no critical critique of the book; no knock on the research or whether it was well-written. They just disagree with the assertion that systemic racism STILL exists in America therefore this is a "bad" book. I really got a problem with scholars being attacked and their work being devalued by the ignorant; probably didn't even read the book. Just sad!

There is no race discrimination in the USA. People can only get discriminated against by their own free will. Oppression is only allowed by those that feel oppressed. Why is it that these comments are cut short and unable to read the entire comments Books need to be allowed on BOTH sides of the story, not just the leftists claims. The truth no Weds to be told fully, not just one side like here.

About the author

Michelle Alexander is an associate professor of law at Ohio State University and holds a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Formerly the director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Project in Northern California, Alexander served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. Cornel West is the Class of 1943 University Professor, emeritus, at Princeton University and is currently Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary.