Prisoners After War (Paperback)

Jason A. Higgins

ISBN 10: 1625347537 / ISBN 13: 9781625347534

Published by University of Massachusetts Press, Massachusetts, 2024

About this Item

Paperback. The United States has both the largest, most expensive, and most powerful military and the largest, most expensive, and most punitive carceral system in the history of the world. Since the American War in Vietnam, the number of veterans who have been incarcerated after their military service has steadily increased, with over 100,000 veterans in prison today. Identifying the previously unrecognized connections between American wars and mass incarceration, Prisoners after War reaches across lines of race, class, and gender to record the untold history of incarcerated veterans over the past six decades. Having conducted dozens of oral history interviews, Jason A. Higgins traces the lifelong effects of war, inequality, disability, and mental illness, and explores why hundreds of thousands of veterans, from Vietnam to Afghanistan, were caught up in the carceral system. This original study tells an intergenerational history of state-sanctioned violence, punishment, and inequality, but its pages also resonate with stories of survival and redemption, revealing future possibilities for reform and reparative justice. Identifying the previously unrecognised connections between American wars and mass incarceration, Prisoners after War reaches across lines of race, class, and gender to record the untold history of incarcerated veterans over the past six decades. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781625347534

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Prisoners After War (Paperback)
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press, Massachusetts
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1625347537
• ISBN 13: 9781625347534
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Winner of the 2025 Oral History Association Book Award • Winner of Virginia Tech's Albert Lee Sturm Award for Faculty Excellence • Finalist for the 2026 Veterans Studies Association Distinguished Book Award • Honorable Mention, National Council on Public History Book Award

The United States has both the largest, most expensive, and most powerful military and the largest, most expensive, and most punitive carceral system in the history of the world. Since the American War in Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of veterans have been incarcerated after their military service.

Identifying the previously unrecognized connections between American wars and mass incarceration, Prisoners after War reaches across lines of race, class, and gender to record the untold history of incarcerated veterans over the past six decades. Having conducted dozens of oral history interviews, Jason A. Higgins traces the lifelong effects of war, inequality, disability, and mental illness, and explores why hundreds of thousands of veterans, from Vietnam to Afghanistan, were caught up in the carceral system. This original study tells an intergenerational history of state-sanctioned violence, punishment, and inequality, but its pages also resonate with stories of survival and redemption, revealing future possibilities for reform and reparative justice.

About the Author

JASON A. HIGGINS is the digital scholarship coordinator for Virginia Tech Publishing and an assistant professor jointly affiliated with Virginia Tech University Libraries and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. He is the coeditor of Service Denied: Marginalized Veterans in Modern American History.