A Colony in a Nation

by Chris Hayes

America likes to tell itself that it inhabits a postracial world, yet nearly every empirical measure—wealth, unemployment, incarceration, school segregation—reveals that racial inequality has barely improved since 1968, when Richard Nixon became our first “law and order” president. With the clarity and originality that distinguished his prescient bestseller, Twilight of the Elites, Chris Hayes upends our national conversation on policing and democracy in a book of wide-ranging historical, social, and political analysis.

Hayes contends our country has fractured in two: the Colony and the Nation. In the Nation, we venerate the law. In the Colony, we obsess over order, fear trumps civil rights, and aggressive policing resembles occupation. A Colony in a Nation explains how a country founded on justice now looks like something uncomfortably close to a police state. How and why did Americans build a system where conditions in Ferguson and West Baltimore mirror those that sparked the American Revolution?

A Colony in a Nation examines the surge in crime that began in the 1960s and peaked in the 1990s, and the unprecedented decline that followed. Drawing on close-hand reporting at flashpoints of racial conflict, as well as deeply personal experiences with policing, Hayes explores cultural touchstones, from the influential “broken windows” theory to the “squeegee men” of late-1980s Manhattan, to show how fear causes us to make dangerous and unfortunate choices, both in our society and at the personal level. With great empathy, he seeks to understand the challenges of policing communities haunted by the omnipresent threat of guns. Most important, he shows that a more democratic and sympathetic justice system already exists—in a place we least suspect.

A Colony in a Nation is an essential book—searing and insightful—that will reframe our thinking about law and order in the years to come.

• ISBN10: 0393254224
• ISBN13: 9780393254228
• Publish Date: 21 March 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: WW Norton & Co
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[Beth C.]

As someone who doesn't watch television, I was fairly unfamiliar with Chris Hayes...until Trump got elected, and I was spending more time on twitter just trying to keep up with the constant chaos. The more I saw/heard from Hayes, the more impressed by his commentary I became. I finally decided to check out the book - and it really is a fascinating look at the divides within our Nation. I found things on almost every page that I wanted to underline, and he has a way of talking about some complex issues that breaks them down easily. There is no real judgement in his tone in this book - he simply explains what he has seen and experienced, includes real-world examples, and discusses the history that has brought us to this point. It's not a complicated read, nor a very long one - but it is something that anyone concerned about the ever-growing divides in our country should read.