Description
Book SynopsisWhat if racialized mass incarceration is not a perversion of our criminal justice system's liberal ideals, but rather a natural conclusion? Adam Malka raises this disturbing possibility through a gripping look at the origins of modern policing in the influential hub of Baltimore during and after slavery's final decades.
Trade ReviewIn this absorbing history of policing in 19th century Baltimore, Adam Malka uses a close case study to fill out our understanding of the evolution of policing, vigilantism, and property in 19th century America." -
CrimeReads"
The Men of Mobtown is a remarkable book. . . . Malka's major achievement is to force readers to consider how today's racial disparities in policing and incarceration are rooted not only in the last fifty years, or in Jim Crow, but in liberal attempts at Reconstruction and the abolition of slavery." -
Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Book Reviews"Turns the conventional wisdom about racial policing in the United States on its head. Far from being a grotesque, late twentieth-century distortion of American political principles, race-based disparities in arrests and incarceration, according to Malka, are expressions of core liberal values and emerged alongside assumptions about African American freedom. . . . This argument is original, important, and timely." -
Journal of Social History"One of the very few works to examine policing in the era of slavery and Reconstruction. It is an ambitious work at that, trenchantly argued and impressively researched. . . . Malka's major achievement is to force readers to consider how today's racial disparities in policing and incarceration are rooted not only in the last fifty years, or in Jim Crow, but in liberal attempts at Reconstruction and the abolition of slavery." -
Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books"A remarkable book. . . . Malka's major achievement is to force readers to consider how today's racial disparities in policing and incarceration are rooted not only in the last fifty years, or in Jim Crow, but in liberal attempts at Reconstruction and the abolition of slavery." - Joshua Clark Davis,
Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books"[Malka] provides a significant contribution to the history of policing in the United States, pressing readers to consider uncomfortable truths." -
Journal of Southern History"Malka's book lays the foundation for our contemporary understanding of how African Americans became the primary victims of police abuse and mass incarceration. He uses newspapers, court records, published reports, and a host of primary sources to support his argument that white supremacy was the driving force that shaped policing and criminal justice in nineteenth-century Baltimore." -
Journal of American History
