The Wire

"This bravura collection of essays ratifies the opinion of millions of worldwide fans: The Wire is the urban Grapes of Wrath, with characters as vivid and enduring, and truths as radical and plain-spoken, as those in Steinbeck's masterpiece." 
--Mike Davis, University of California, Riverside

"Across its seasons, The Wire set out to combine a highly entertaining television experience with trenchant social argument. In comparable fashion, the essays in this volume take on the challenge of offering consequential cultural analysis in a compelling manner, and they amply provide myriad insights expressed with verve and vitality. A rich, important collection." 
--Dana Polan, New York University

"Kennedy and Shapiro have assembled a stellar collection of essays -- these consistently smart and engaging pieces illustrate how high quality crime tv operates as a premiere showcase for the tensions and predicaments of early twenty-first century American life and how The Wire in particular emerges as a crucial, compelling cultural text." 
 --Diane Negra, University College Dublin

Liam Kennedy is Professor of American Studies and Director of the Clinton Institute for American Studies at University College Dublin. 

Stephen Shapiro is Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.