Blood in the Water; The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy
New York: Pantheon Books, 2016. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Endpaper map. xvii[1], 724, [6] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Heather Ann Thompson is an American historian, author, activist, professor, and speaker from Detroit, Michigan. Thompson won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in History, the 2016 Bancroft Prize, and other awards for her work Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy. Thompson earned a bachelor's degree and master's degree from the University of Michigan and completed her Ph.D. at Princeton University. Thompson was a faculty member at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte from 1997 to 2009, and then was a faculty member of Temple University in Philadelphia from 2009 to 2015. In 2015. Thompson accepted a faculty positions at the University of Michigan. Thompson writes about the history and current crises of mass incarceration for numerous publications. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Jacobin, NBC, Time Magazine, The Atlantic, Salon, Huffington Post, and Dissent. Several of Thompson's scholarly pieces, including "Why Mass Incarceration Matters," have won best article awards, and her popular piece in The Atlantic, "How Prisons Change the Balance of Power in America," was named a finalist for the Best Media Award given by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Thompson served on a National Academy of Sciences blue-ribbon panel to study causes and consequences of incarceration in the U.S. Thompson's books include: Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Rebellion of 1971 and its Legacy. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALIST * NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK FOR 2016 * NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE BOSTON GLOBE, NEWSWEEK, KIRKUS, AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. This is the first definitive history of the infamous 1971 Attica Prison uprising, the State's response, and the decades-long aftermath. On September 9, 1971, nearly 1,300 prisoners took over the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York to protest years of mistreatment. Holding guards and civilian employees hostage, the prisoners negotiated with officials for improved conditions during the four long days and nights that followed. On September 13, the state abruptly sent hundreds of heavily armed troopers and correction officers to retake the prison by force. Their gunfire killed thirty-nine men, hostages as well as prisoners, and severely wounded more than one hundred others. In the ensuing hours, weeks, and months, troopers and officers brutally retaliated against the prisoners. And, ultimately, New York State authorities prosecuted only the prisoners, never once bringing charges against the officials involved in the retaking and its aftermath and neglecting to provide support to the survivors and the families of the men who had been killed. Drawing from more than a decade of extensive research, historian Heather Ann Thompson sheds new light on every aspect of the uprising and its legacy, giving voice to all those who took part in this forty-five-year fight for justice: prisoners, former hostages, families of the victims, lawyers and judges, and state officials and members of law enforcement. Blood in the Water is the searing and indelible account of one of the most important law enforcement stories of the last century. (With black-and-white photos throughout). Since its publication in 2016, Blood in the Water has been profiled by media outlets across the U.S., Europe, and Canada, and has received much critical praise. The book was featured and reviewed in three separate sections of The New York Times with one of the reviews calling it a "gripping...remarkable...a superb work of history" while another heralded its research, and the final one, a full-length piece in the NYT Book Review, lauding its passion and power. Reviews in other publications such as Newsweek and The Christian Science Monitor were equally glowing, with the latter calling the book "a masterpiece." The author, Heather Ann Thompson, was herself featured in The New York Times Magazine. In their review, the Brennan Center for Justice described how, "Thompson’s definitive account should be read by students, historians, and others who are interested not only in the riot itself, but in these larger subjects, and one more: the capacity of our legal system, after the fact, to right wrongs, and provide at least a modicum of justice." Lauren Brooke-Eisen, the reviewer, notes that the book, "contributes greatly to our understanding of this complex event by expertly filling in these details and weaving them into a comprehensive narrative." Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Attica Prison, Law Enforcement, Correctional Facility, Frank "Big Black" Smith, Michael Smith, Tom Wicker, Riot, Uprising, State Police, Investigations, Indictments, Reprisals, Nelson Rockefeller, Malcolm Bell, Walter Dunbar, Arthur Eve, Hostages, Wi
ISBN: 9780375423222
[Book #84916]
Price: $65.00