The New Jim Crow

Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

With a new preface by the author

A tenth-anniversary edition of the iconic bestseller—“one of the most influential books of the past 20 years,” according to the Chronicle of Higher Education—with a new preface by the author

“It is in no small part thanks to Alexander’s account that civil rights organizations such as Black Lives Matter have focused so much of their energy on the criminal justice system.” —Adam Shatz, London Review of Books

One of the New York Times’s Best Books of the 21st Century
Winner, NAACP Image Award
Winner, Constitutional Commentary Award
Winner, Emerson Award
Silver Medal Winner, Independent Publishers Association
Finalist, Silver Gavel Award
Finalist, Letitia Woods Brown Book Award
Finalist, Phi Beta Kappa

Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Most important of all, it has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by Michelle Alexander’s unforgettable argument that “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” As the Birmingham News proclaimed, it is “undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S.”

Now, ten years after it was first published, The New Press is proud to issue a tenth-anniversary edition with a new preface by Michelle Alexander that discusses the impact the book has had and the state of the criminal justice reform movement today.

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Praise

“[The New Jim Crow] took the academy and the streets by storm, and forced the nation to reconsider the systems that allowed for blatant discrimination.”
—The Chronicle of Higher Education
“Alexander is absolutely right to fight for what she describes as a ‘much-needed conversation’ about the wide-ranging social costs and divisive racial impact of our criminal-justice policies.”
—Ellis Cose, Newsweek
“Many critics have cast doubt on the proclamations of racism’s erasure in the Obama era, but few have presented a case as powerful as Alexander’s.”
—In These Times
“[Written] with rare clarity, depth, and candor.”
—Counterpunch
“Undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S.”
—Birmingham News
“If you’re interested in learning more about the real lives caught up in our country’s justice system, I highly recommend The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. It offers an eye-opening look into how the criminal justice system unfairly targets communities of color—and especially Black communities.”
—Bill Gates
“Devastating. . . . Alexander does a fine job of truth-telling, pointing a finger where it rightly should be pointed: at all of us, liberal and conservative, white and black.”
—Forbes
“Invaluable . . . a timely and stunning guide to the labyrinth of propaganda, discrimination, and racist policies masquerading under other names that comprises what we call justice in America.”
—Daily Kos
“Carefully researched, deeply engaging, and thoroughly readable.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A call to action for everyone concerned with racial justice and an important tool for anyone concerned with understanding and dismantling this oppressive system. ”
—Sojourners
“During the past decade, no single book was more directly responsible for reshaping how the American public understands race and mass incarceration than Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow.”
—Carolyn Copeland, Daily Kos

News and Reviews

The Colbert Report

Michelle Alexander on The Colbert Report discussing her book, The New Jim Crow

See more

Pages

Books by Michelle Alexander

El color de la justicia

El color de la justicia

La nueva segregación racial en Estados Unidos

Michelle Alexander

Goodreads Reviews