Elizabeth Hinton Discusses Carceral Studies and Scholarly Activism

10/20/17 • 15 min

In this AHR Interview, we speak with Elizabeth Hinton, Assistant Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, about the broad field of carceral studies and the role of activism for scholars of carceral history. Hinton's 2016 book, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America, has been reviewed widely, including in the June 2017 issue of the AHR, and was placed on the list of 100 notable books of 2016 by the New York Times. Hinton speaks with AHR editorial assistant Charlene Fletcher, who is herself completing a dissertation that addresses carceral questions. Before commencing her doctoral studies in history, Fletcher taught criminal justice at the City University of New York and worked on prisoner reentry initiatives for the New York Prison System. The AHR review of Hinton's book, "From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America," is available here: https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/122/3/795/3862795/Elizabeth-Hinton-From-the-War-on-Poverty-to-the?redirectedFrom=fulltext

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An Interview with AHR Author Sven Beckert on His Article American Danger

In this pilot episode of AHR Interview, a production of the American Historical Review, intern Clay Catlin speaks with Sven Beckert about his article “American Danger: United States Empire, Eurafrica, and the Territorialization of Industrial Capitalism, 1870–1950,” which appears in the journal’s October 2017 issue. Beckert is Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University. He is the author of the 2001 book The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie and the 2014 book Empire of Cotton: A Global History, which won the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Most recently he served as coeditor for the 2016 volume Slavery's Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development. Read the article at https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/122/4/1137/4320241/American-Danger-United-States-Empire-Eurafrica-and?redirectedFrom=fulltext

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Sunil Amrith Discusses His Recent MacArthur Fellowship Award

In this episode we speak with Sunil Amrith, Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies and Professor of History at Harvard University. He is the author of the 2006 book Decolonizing International Health: South and Southeast Asia, 1930-1965 and the 2011 book Migration and Diaspora in Modern Asia. His most recent book, published in 2013, is Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants. Amrith speaks with Pedro Machado who is Associate Professor of History at Indiana University and whose own work focuses on the history of social and commercial connections between western India and southeastern Africa. Their conversation explores Amrith’s most recent book as well as what his recent award might mean for his future research. They begin by discussing Amrith’s AHR article, “Tamil Diasporas across the Bay of Bengal,” which appeared in the June 2009 issue. Read Amrith's article in the AHR: https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.114.3.547 Listeners may also be interested in the December 2016 AHR forum on Amitav Ghosh's "Ibis Trilogy": https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/121.5.1521