With Liberty for Some: 500 Years of Imprisonment in America

The key word in the subtitle is ""imprisonment,"" for although much of this book is a history of the U.S. prison system, it is also an examination of the whole notion of imprisonment, whether as a slave, as (according to the author) a member of a utopian community such as the Shakers or as an inmate at Sing Sing. Christianson (a former newspaper reporter now associated with the New York State Defenders Association) offers an accessible, if curiously unfocused, account that includes a quick history of the African slave trade, a glimpse at how the British treated American prisoners of war during the Revolutionary War, grim scenes from early prisons in New York and Pennsylvania, descriptions of Civil War, stories of famous wardens and convicts (the Scottsboro Boys, Sacco and Vanzetti, Marcus Garvey), accounts of notorious prison riots and--finally--the rise of the prison business, which Christianson convincingly argues is now a mainstay of the American economy. The book sometimes wanders far afield (what's the early history of the Mormon Church doing here?) while other germane subjects are left uncovered (he gives limited serious attention, for instance, to the theories of criminology and prison architecture that made 19th-century America a mecca for penologists, or to how typical prisoners now spend their days). The author is a skillful storyteller with an eye for unexpected information, but his apparent zeal to impart a lot of information often interferes with his message. (Nov.)