Golden Gulag, Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Golden Gulag, Ruth Wilson Gilmore
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Golden Gulag
Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California

Author: Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Narrator: Machelle Williams

Unabridged: 7 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/08/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

Since 1980, the number of people in US prisons has increased more than 450%. Despite a crime rate that has been falling steadily for decades, California has led the way in this explosion, with what a state analyst called "the biggest prison building project in the history of the world." Golden Gulag provides the first detailed explanation for that buildup by looking at how political and economic forces conjoined to produce the prison boom.

Ruth Wilson Gilmore examines this issue through statewide, rural, and urban perspectives to explain how the expansion developed from surpluses of finance capital, labor, land, and state capacity. Detailing crises that hit California's economy with particular ferocity, she argues that defeats of radical struggles, weakening of labor, and shifting patterns of capital investment have been key conditions for prison growth. The results—a vast and expensive prison system, a huge number of incarcerated young people of color, and the increase in punitive justice such as the "three strikes" law—pose profound and troubling questions for the future of California, the United States, and the world. Golden Gulag provides a rich context for this complex dilemma, and at the same time challenges many cherished assumptions about who benefits and who suffers from the state's commitment to prison expansion.

About Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Ruth Wilson Gilmore is professor of Earth and environmental sciences and director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at CUNY Graduate Center. A cofounder of California Prison Moratorium Project and Critical Resistance, she is the author of the prize-winning book Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sunny on February 02, 2025

Essential reading for any anti-racist, abolitionist, feminist. Deconstructs the myth of prison as sites of extractive labor, and argues that the surplus populations of deindustrialized cities under capitalism are designed and designated for prison. Also articulates the conflicts and struggles of mot......more

Goodreads review by Alok on October 24, 2020

This is a must for anyone interested in contextualizing the crisis of (mass) incarceration. Gilmore seamlessly integrates geography, political economy, and a deep study of anti-Black racism to present how states do race as a way to manage populations. Gilmore has been a leading light in abolitionist......more

Goodreads review by Andrea on February 06, 2012

This is written by an activist trying to answer questions asked by mothers fighting for the lives of their children in prison, and grappling with the theory behind her work, so you know I loved it. I found it quite challenging though, and I'm still thinking about how she frames the political economy......more

Goodreads review by Katie on August 17, 2020

Summary: Included some interesting info, but it was dense and didn't answer the main question it addressed. I've been working through an online class to learn about the prison abolition movement and it includes several interviews with author Ruth Wilson Gilmore. That's what led me to this academic no......more

Goodreads review by Juhyundred on January 29, 2021

I wish this book got more hype as a historical materialist study of prisons. More abolition as a question of political economy plz......more