• The New Jim Crow

  • Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition
  • By: Michelle Alexander
  • Narrated by: Karen Chilton
  • Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (12,722 ratings)

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The New Jim Crow

By: Michelle Alexander
Narrated by: Karen Chilton
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Publisher's summary

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 best seller 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, 10 years after it was first published, The New Press is proud to issue a 10th-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.

©2010, 2012, 2020 Michelle Alexander (P)2012, 2020 Recorded Books

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Editor's Pick

Shedding light on a mass injustice
"I’m known as a bit of a true crime junkie around the office, and I can talk your ear off about how ethically executed content is the future of the genre. But there are bigger fish to fry than just salacious stories about serial killers and cults—like how the US criminal justice system has come to replace segregation as a large-scale tool of racial oppression. Civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander’s extensively researched, groundbreaking work on mass incarceration is a must-listen for anyone interested in the hot topic of criminal justice reform, and the myriad racial and ethical issues surrounding it."
Kat J., Audible Editor

What listeners say about The New Jim Crow

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Unforgettable. Unassailable.

Should be required reading for the nation. I hesitate to write a review because it’s a book... while the story it tells us is a reality.

Do I say bravo? Well done? Great book? It is all that, but it is also... real life. I’m better for having read it. You will be too.

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Great Book! A must for Social Workers everywhere!

Loved it! Very informative and sheds to light how far we have come and how much more we need to go.

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An essential book

Fascinating and eye-opening. An important read for anyone who cares about social justice. Narrator is very clear and engaging.

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A Must Read

This should be required reading for all Americans. It addresses many of the issues and origins of our problems we face today. Black or white you should read this.

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The most devastating book ever written

This book needs to be read by every person. It's filled with facts from front to back. Many of them will be upsetting and unsettling to you. The New Jim Crow is not a myth, it's reality.

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Excellent Read

I believe this book is ground breaking and instrumental in bringing forth factual representations to discuss the issue of racial caste systems. I would Identify myself as the "conscious" type of black individual, that understood a lot of her points made through personal experience, however, this was the first time it was articulated in such a way that brings forth the issue that this racial caste system includes not only blacks but the poor white class.

I will recommend this book to all of my friends!!

Thank you Michelle for your eloquent execution of facts, and Karen for making this audiobook

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Well done.

The author makes a compelling argument that the Drug War was intended as a mass incarceration of people of color. This is a fine book and I thank Mark Zuckerberg for including it on his list of amazing books.

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young men

I feel young men need to read this in general to better understand our current social climate in America.

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Amazing

One of the once in a generation books truly life changing and can't stop talking about!

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A Must Read For Reform Minded People of Conscience

As peoples of faith and conscience all over America consider the new #blacklivesmatter movement, they must understand how the societal inequities and institutional racism that we confront manifests itself throughout our system of criminal justice. How do we address this institutionalism on manifold levels, as a fight for civil and human rights? For the thinking man and woman 'The New Jim Crow' is a great start.

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