Badges without Borders

“Stuart Schrader’s Badges without Borders is a stunning achievement. A conceptual tour de force that simultaneously combines political theory, sociology, and social history, Schrader’s book examines how the United States pioneered a kind of professional carceral internationalism. The United States has long resisted scholarly efforts at categorical definition. How, after all, does one study a nation with borders but no boundaries? Schrader shows us how.”—Greg Grandin, author of The End of Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America

"Schrader’s superb and finely written book shows beyond any doubt that US law enforcement deliberately policed its own citizens like the military did Cold War 'enemies' elsewhere. Deemed counterinsurgents in both contexts, Badges without Borders illustrates precisely how the military industrial complex and the prison industrial complex came together through law enforcement in an attempt to crush anti-racist and anti-colonial activists here and abroad. Everything from riot control to stop and frisk policing and the use of military-grade weapons in U.S. cities have their roots in national security policy. In this excellent work of history, the archives finally reveal just how right Baldwin was to call Harlem 'occupied territory.'"—Khalil Gibran Muhammad, author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America

"Going beyond the lament of police militarization, Badges Without Borders weaves together domestic policing and foreign military occupation in a single—and singularly powerful—history of global order maintenance. More than a beautifully crafted, fine-grained history of police modernization, this book’s history of terror reminds us of a critical lesson: U.S. elites built the arsenal of oppression against subversives and revolutionaries by working across national boundaries. Liberation will require the same."—Naomi Murakawa, author of The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America

“Badges Without Borders reveals the way American bureaucrats promoted professionalization of policing as a counterinsurgency strategy abroad, and then drew upon their experience to manage urban unrest at home. Fascinating and deeply researched, it makes crucial contributions to the history of security practices and the US role in the world.”—Mary L. Dudziak, author of War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences

"Schrader’s elegant, compelling, and eye-opening narrative, bursting with a palpable urgency, shows us that coercive policing in America’s streets has always been tightly interwoven with American-sponsored state violence abroad, whether in Vietnam, Brazil, or Guatemala. With this book, we can never look at policing in America in the same way again. No consideration of policing today can proceed without taking it into account."—Julian Go, author of Patterns of Empire: the British and American Empires, 1688 to Present 

“In this eloquently written and persuasive book, Schrader makes many original and generative contributions to scholarship and civic life. He presents telling critiques of what have become shibboleths of the left: about the Cold War as an alleged boon to anti-racism, about viewing domestic police work and overseas military operations as unconnected, and about the presumed innocence of liberals and liberalism in the construction and maintenance of racist subordination.—George Lipsitz, author of How Racism Takes Place