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Cars and Jails

Dreams of Freedom, Realties of Debt and Prison
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Cars and Jails explores the intricate relationship between transportation systems and imprisonment in the United States. The authors delve into how cars and mobility play a significant role in shaping crime, punishment, and social justice. By examining policy impacts and societal trends, Livingston and Ross highlight the interconnectedness of these seemingly unrelated institutions and offer insights into systemic change.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This intriguing exploration may appeal to you if you are interested in the intersection of transportation and social justice, examining how systems of mobility relate to incarceration and environmental issues. The book delves into the societal impacts of car culture and mass incarceration, offering a critical perspective on these intertwined systems and their influence on communities. If you have a passion for understanding the hidden connections between everyday life and broader social structures, this work provides thought-provoking insights and analysis.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

"Racism is like a Cadillac, they bring out a new model every year."
- Malcolm X (a former auto worker)

Written in a lively, accessible fashion and drawing extensively on interviews with people who were formerly incarcerated, Cars and Jails examines how the costs of car ownership and use are deeply enmeshed with the U.S. prison system.

American consumer lore has long held the automobile to be a "freedom machine," consecrating the mobility of a free people. Yet, paradoxically, the car also functions at the crossroads of two great systems of entrapment and immobility: the American debt economy and the carceral state.

Cars and Jails investigates this paradox, showing how auto debt, traffic fines, over-policing, and automated surveillance systems work in tandem to entrap and criminalise poor people. The authors describe how racialisation and poverty take their toll on populations with no alternative, in a country poorly served by public transport, forcing them to take out loans for cars and exposing themselves to predatory and often racist policing.

Looking sceptically at the frothy promises of the "mobility revolution," Livingston and Ross close with thought-provoking ideas for a radical overhaul of transportation.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Cars and Jails, written by Julie Livingston and Andrew Ross, is praised for its critical exploration of the intersection between carceral systems and automobility, shedding light on how automotive life is intertwined with societal structures, including racial hierarchies. The book is recognised as both a brilliant and necessary intervention in critical carceral studies, offering insights with considerable practical significance.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781682193495

Publisher: OR Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 12 January 2023

Country: United States

Imprint: OR Books

Illustration: B/W images integrated throughout

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 127.0mm

Height: 177.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 200

About the Author

Andrew Ross is a social activist and professor at NYU, where he teaches in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis and the Prison Education Program. Previously employed at Princeton University, he has held positions at Cornell, Rochester, Illinois and Shanghai universities. A native of Scotland, he has lived and worked in the U.S. since 1981, and in New York City since 1993. A contributor to the Guardian, the New York Times, The Nation, and Al Jazeera, he is the author or editor of more than twenty books, and has published more than 200 articles in a variety of journals, magazines, and news outlets. He is a founding member of several movement groups, including the Gulf Labor Coalition, Decolonize This Place, Strike Debt, and the Debt Collective, and he is active in the Palestinian rights movement.

Julie Livingston is Silver Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at New York University. Her previous books include Self-devouring Growth: a Planetary Parable as Told from Southern Africa;Improvising Medicine: An African Oncology Ward in an Emerging Cancer Epidemic; and Debility and the Moral Imagination in Botswana. The recipient of numerous awards and prizes, in 2013 Livingston was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. She is an active member of the NYU Prison Education Program Research Collective.

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