★★★★★ 5
Gilmore does a great job of discussing and parceling out the very complex ...
Format: Paperback
If anyone has mastered the political economy and geography of prisons in California, it is Ruth Wilson Gilmore in Golden Gulag. Gilmore does a great job of discussing and parceling out the very complex and complicated relationships that exist between capitalism as a system that produces our material world alongside economic crises, and the function of prisons to absorb, manage, relocate and "hide" those very crises in the era of neoliberalism. She also skillfully reminds us over and over that it is black and brown working-class poor communities that bear the brunt of this kind of system that also expresses it's power via white supremacy. I am finding this book very useful and chock-full of interesting information for my current research.
People may find the book a difficult read because it loaded with information and technicalities they are unfamiliar with, but these are good reasons to struggle with a text and truly grasp the increasingly intricate processes that determine and guide the world we live in (and the places we may end up locked in!). As Marx said, there is no royal road to science and knowledge.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2017
