Dr. Bernstein is a cultural historian at Harvard, teaching US Racial Formation since the early 19th century. Her latest book, Freeman’s Challenge: The Murder That Shook America’s Original Prison for Profit, delves into the history of America’s first prisons in New York built along capitalist ideals, and how one young man violently rebelled against the unfair and abusive treatment therein. One man’s violent resistance response to injustice continues today to shape American perspectives on race, violence, and incarceration.
How you can buy Freeman’s Challenge:
Other mentions from Episode 219:
- P.T. Barnum
- Pomodoro technique
- California Law on prison labor
- Prison Gerrymandering
- Quakers
- Cuyuga county archives
- George Mastin and his paintings
- U Chicago Press
