ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
AMERICA ON FIRE
The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s
Elizabeth Hinton
“Thought-provoking examination of ‘the cycle,’ whereby minority protests against police brutality beget only more violence . . . . A must-read for all concerned with civil rights and social justice in modern America.”
— Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“[A] penetrating and incisive account of Black rebellion . . . Readers interested in social movements in the United States, past or present, will not want to miss this illuminating work.” — Chad E. Statler, Library Journal, starred review
“Hinton masterfully examines multiple incidents across the country, illustrating not only the prevalence of rebellions but how ongoing violent racial discrimination is horrifically common. As Hinton links the history of rebellion to the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, readers will be struck by the generational echoes of Black Americans’ struggle for justice.”
— Laura Chanoux, Booklist, starred review.
“If you want to understand the massive antiracist protests of 2020, put down the navel-gazing books about racial healing and read America on Fire.”
—Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
Landing just one week before the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, AMERICA ON FIRE is an explosive history of Black rebellions from the 1960s to the present. A sweeping narrative that takes us on a troubling journey from moments we know well – Detroit in 1967, Miami in 1980, and Los Angeles in 1992 – to many instances of violent protest we don’t recognize as readily – Rochester, NY in 1964 or Cairo, Illinois in 1969 – notable historian Elizabeth Hinton charts the persistence of structural racism and one of its primary consequences: the mistermed “urban riot.”
We live, Hinton argues, in a nation and national culture created by the extreme violence of the 1960s and early 1970s; what was considered to be a short-term solution to race riots (as understood then)—the expansion of American law enforcement, particularly in communities of color—has become a long-term reality, resulting in mass incarceration, a draconian police state, and a semantic habit hiding a deeper reality.
Charting the vicious cycle of police violence leading to community violence over decades, Hinton reveals that rebellion – from the 1960s up to the summer of 2020 – has become an all too predictable reaction to the presence of militarized police. And if we are to break this cycle, we must understand this:
“The violent and nonviolent expressions of black protest are entwined forces, and violent rebellion must be understood on its own terms, as a type of political action that has been integral to the history of the freedom movement in America. . . what were long assumed to be urban, Black “riots” were, in fact, rebellions—political acts carried out in response to an unjust and repressive society. This redefinition leads, necessarily, to an examination of the failures of the Civil Rights era, whose unfulfilled promises resulted in continued poverty and skyrocketing imprisonment.”
Attempting to reckon with where we go from here by offering up a radical new framework for understanding the failures of the post-civil rights era, Hinton’s “spellbinding” (Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor) AMERICA ON FIRE reveals the roots of our current struggle for racial justice.
About the author: Elizabeth Hinton is Associate Professor in the Department of History and the Department of African American Studies at Yale, with a secondary appointment as Professor of Law at the Law School. Hinton’s research focuses on the persistence of poverty, racial inequality, and urban violence in the 20th century United States. She is considered one of the nation’s leading experts on criminalization and policing. The author of From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime, she lives in New Haven, Connecticut and is available for virtual and in-person interviews and events.
TITLE: AMERICA ON FIRE: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Hinton
PUB DATE: May 18, 2021
PAGES: 408
PRICE: $29.95
ISBN: 978-1-63149-890-9
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