The Suburban Crisis by Matthew D. Lassiter - 9780691248943

Princeton University Press

The Suburban CrisisWhite America and the War on Drugs\nAuthor(s): Matthew D. Lassiter\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Princeton University Press, United States\nImprint: Princeton University Press\nISBN-13: 9780691248943, 978-0691248943\nSynopsis\nHow the drug war transformed American political culture\n\nSince the 1950s, the American war on drugs has positioned white middle-class youth as sympathetic victims of illegal drug markets who need rehabilitation instead of incarceration whenever they break the law. The Suburban Crisis traces how politicians, the media, and grassroots political activists crusaded to protect white families from perceived threats while criminalizing and incarcerating urban minorities, and how a troubling legacy of racial injustice continues to inform the war on drugs today.\n\nIn this incisive political history, Matthew Lassiter shows how the category of the white middle-class victim has been as central to the politics and culture of the drug war as racial ste.