Reading list

Books on Breaking Police Power

Featuring work from Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Alex S. Vitale, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, and more!

Verso Books11 February 2026

The police don’t keep us safe, we keep us safe.

These books are essential for understanding the military-style tactics used to suppress protest, to the mass incarceration of poor people of colour, and how we can resist the violent carceral state.

Prisons and Mass Incarceration

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Mapping Police Power and its Abolition

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Police Suppression of Dissent

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Police and Gender Based Violence

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The End of Policing

by Alex S. Vitale

The massive uprising following the police killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020--by some estimates the largest protests in US history--thrust the argument to defund the police to the forefr...
Paperback

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A World Without Police

by Geo Maher

Compellingly argued and lyrically charged, A World without Police offers concrete strategies for confronting and breaking police power, as a first step toward building community alternatives that m...
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Police

by Tyler Wall and David Correia

This book armed activists on the streets—as well as the many who have become concerned about police abuse—with a critical analysis and ultimately a redefinition of the very idea of policing. The b...
Paperback

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The Panthers Can't Save Us Now

by Cedric G. Johnson

In the wake of the mass protests over the police murder of George Floyd, nearly every major consumer brand proclaimed their commitments to antiracism, often with new ad campaigns to match their Twe...
Paperback

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After Black Lives Matter

by Cedric G. Johnson

Why did a movement as powerful as the one inspired by the murder of George Floyd fall short of securing its most militant demands? After Black Lives Matter argues that the core of the movement itse...
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Policing the Planet

Contributions by Robin D.G. Kelley, Anjali Kamat, Arun Kundnani, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Vijay Prashad, Alex S. Vitale, Alex Sanchez, George Lipsitz, Asha Rosa Ransby-Sporn, Becky Dennison, Breanna Champion, Brian Jordan Jefferson, Christina B. Hanhardt, Craig Gilmore, Don Mitchell, Hamid Khan, Justin Hansford, Kafui Attoh, Lynn A. Staeheli, Marisol Lebrón, Martín Espada, Mizue Aizeki, Naomi Murakawa, Page May, Pete White, Rachel Herzing and Steven Osuna

Edited by Christina Heatherton and Jordan T. Camp

Combining firsthand accounts from activists with the research of scholars and reflections from artists, Policing the Planet traces the global spread of the broken-windows policing strategy, first e...
Paperback

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If They Come in the Morning

by Angela Davis

The trial of Angela Davis is remembered as one of America's most historic political trials, and no one can tell the story better than Davis herself. Opening with a letter from James Baldwin to Ange...
Paperback

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Charged

by Matt Foot and Morag Livingstone

Charged is an essential investigation into the role of policing protest in Britain today. As the UK government tries to suppress all forms of dissent, in their pursuit of more control, how do the p...
Hardback

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Tear Gas

by Anna Feigenbaum

One hundred years ago, French troops fired tear gas grenades into German trenches. Designed to force people out from behind barricades and trenches, tear gas causes burning of the eyes and skin, te...
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A Critical Theory of Police Power

by Mark Neocleous

The ubiquitous nature and political attraction of the concept of order has to be understood in conjunction with the idea of police. Since its first publication, this book has been one of the most p...
Paperback

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Pacification

by Mark Neocleous

In his new book, critical theorist Mark Neocleous engages in a sustained critique of the theory and practice of pacification. Combining philosophical analysis with historical detail, Neocleous anal...
Paperback

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After Black Lives Matter

by Cedric G. Johnson

Why did a movement as powerful as the one inspired by the murder of George Floyd fall short of securing its most militant demands? After Black Lives Matter argues that the core of the movement itse...
Paperback

Add to cart Sale price $24.95

A Short History of Trans Misogyny

by Jules Gill-Peterson

Award-winning historian Jules Gill-Peterson’s richly detailed narrative takes us from New York, London, and Paris to the colonial districts of the British Raj, the Philippines, and Hawai’i to tell ...
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Miss Major Speaks

by Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Toshio Meronek

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a veteran of the infamous Stonewall Riots, a former sex worker, and a transgender elder and activist who has survived Bellevue psychiatric hospital, Attica Prison, the H...
Paperback

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Why Would Feminists Trust the Police?

by Leah Cowan

Every week it seems there is a fresh scandal involving abhorrent, racist, misogynist behaviour by police officers. Yet these are the very people women are supposed to approach for help when faced w...
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Free Them All

by Gwenola Ricordeau

Foreword by Silvia Federici

Translated by Emma Ramadan and Tom Roberge

How does the criminal justice system affect women's lives? Do prisons keep women safe? Should feminists rely on policing and the law to achieve women's liberation?The mainstream feminist movement h...
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Revolting Prostitutes

by Molly Smith and Juno Mac

How the law harms sex workers - and what they want insteadDo you have to endorse prostitution in order to support sex worker rights? Should clients be criminalized, and can the police deliver justi...
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The Feminist and The Sex Offender

by Erica R. Meiners and Judith Levine

With analytical clarity and narrative force, The Feminist and the Sex Offender contends with two problems that are typically siloed in the era of #MeToo and mass incarceration: sexual and gender vi...
Paperback

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Abolition Geography

by Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Gathering together Ruth Wilson Gilmore's work from over three decades, Abolition Geography presents her singular contribution to the politics of abolition as theorist, researcher, and organizer, of...
Paperback

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Captives

by Jarrod Shanahan

Captives combines a thrilling narrative account of Rikers Island’s descent into infamy with a dramatic retelling of the last seventy years of New York and American politics from the vantage point o...
Hardback

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The Jail is Everywhere

by Jack Norton, Lydia Pelot-Hobbs and Judah Schept

Foreword by Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Nearly every county and major city in the United States has a jail, the short-term detention center controlled by local sheriffs that funnels people into prisons and long-term incarceration. Jails ...
Paperback

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The Panthers Can't Save Us Now

by Cedric G. Johnson

In the wake of the mass protests over the police murder of George Floyd, nearly every major consumer brand proclaimed their commitments to antiracism, often with new ad campaigns to match their Twe...
Paperback

Add to cart Sale price $19.95

Charged

by Matt Foot and Morag Livingstone

Charged is an essential investigation into the role of policing protest in Britain today. As the UK government tries to suppress all forms of dissent, in their pursuit of more control, how do the p...
Hardback

Add to cart Sale price $29.95

Lockdown High

by Annette Fuentes

School violence has fallen steadily for twenty years. Yet in schools throughout the United States, Annette Fuentes finds metal detectors and drug tests for aspirin, police profiling of students wit...
Paperback

Add to cart Sale price $29.95

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The Homegrown City: Reclaiming the Metropolis for its Users

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Books on Breaking Police Power

Prisons and Mass Incarceration

Mapping Police Power and its Abolition

Police Suppression of Dissent

Police and Gender Based Violence

The End of Policing

A World Without Police

Police

The Panthers Can't Save Us Now

After Black Lives Matter

Policing the Planet

If They Come in the Morning

Charged

Tear Gas

A Critical Theory of Police Power

Pacification

After Black Lives Matter

A Short History of Trans Misogyny

Miss Major Speaks

Why Would Feminists Trust the Police?

Free Them All

Revolting Prostitutes

The Feminist and The Sex Offender

Abolition Geography

Captives

The Jail is Everywhere

The Panthers Can't Save Us Now

Charged

Lockdown High

Prisons and Mass Incarceration

Mapping Police Power and its Abolition

Police Suppression of Dissent

Police and Gender Based Violence

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