Book review: The prison and the gallows: The politics of mass incarceration in America, Marie Gottschalk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 451 pp. (including index). $28.99 (pbk). ISBN 0—521—68291—6
| DOI | 10.1177/14624745070090040405 |
| Author | Vanessa Barker |
| Date | 01 October 2007 |
| Published date | 01 October 2007 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
and informal activities and official and unofficial versions of justice in the fabric of
governance.
Many of these essays seem like trimmed down versions of much larger projects that
would benefit from the extra space. Anyone looking for extended analysis of one region
or a particular theme will not find it in this volume. This should not be considered a
limitation but an exciting invitation for criminologists to delve further into these
authors’ work, regardless of background in postcolonial topics. One pitfall to this
abridged format is the temptation to see a simplified functionalist link between anomic
civil society, increasing social disorder and the State’s anemic and/or reactionary
responses. Another danger is a potentially imprecise application of theory. A prime
example is Acille Mbembe’s sprawling chapter on the effects of war on the postcolony’s
relationship to questions of life and death. His occasional macro-sociological use of
psychoanalytic concepts requires more direct evidence than his literature review
provides.
In addition, notwithstanding the editors’ claim that the traditional state is undergo-
ing change in an age of privatization, for the most part, the essays point to how these
countries lag in the traditional teleology of state and economic development. Little space
is given to the ways they are developing new modes of governance much remarked upon
by criminologists with regards to developed countries. For example, how is the formal
integration of the private and public spheres manifesting itself in institutions of social
control? One possible site for study might be the prison, which continues to play an
important and contested role in questions of law and disorder in these countries.
It is now a well-established fact that western criminology has myopically missed out
on many of the opportunities postcolonial sites provide for research and knowledge.
This book offers a remarkable opportunity to delve into the work currently being done.
Hopefully it will inspire future work in the field.
Ezra Tessler
Columbia University, NYC, USA
The prison and the gallows: The politics of mass incarceration in America, Marie
Gottschalk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 451 pp. (including index).
$28.99 (pbk). ISBN 0–521–68291–6.
In The prison and the gallows, Marie Gottschalk sets out to explain how the United
States has built a massive carceral state, which currently incarcerates one in every 32
adults, and has done so without much public protest. She pauses to remind us that the
USA’s heavy reliance on state coercion is not only historically unprecedented but is five
to 12 times higher than other western democracies, expressing disbelief that the
American public has not resisted such an imposing expansion of state authority and
state power. She then argues that we can explain this apparent lack of opposition and
subsequent rise of mass incarceration as a consequence of the particular institutional
history of the USA. That is to say, the recent prison boom and its necessary social
support are deeply rooted in the long-term political development of the USA. Specifi-
cally, Gottschalk identifies the slow but potent expansion of the institutional capacity
and legitimation of federal law enforcement, the weak and under-developed welfare
PUNISHMENT & SOCIETY 9(4)
426
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