Policing a Class Society: The Experience of American Cities, 1865–1915

by Sidney L. Harring

Police are popularly understood as the “thin blue line” that “serves and protects” us from violence and crime in the pursuit of justice. In Policing a Class Society , Sidney L. Harring provides an essential corrective to the ideas that police have always been around, that they are a force for deterring crime, or that theyhave an interest in the pursuit of justice. Looking at the growth of the urban police force around the turn of the 20th century, Harring argues that the police protected the interestsof manufacturers, working almost as hired guns. Rather than fighting crime, the historical role of police was to control the leisure activity of the devloping working-class and maintainthe existing order of capitalist relationships.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Sociology, Police, American History, Economics

316 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1983

Reviews

[Babbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to come

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly compelling sociological study of how policing took form in the late 19th to early 20th century. Harring's reporting of various labor actions and police responses to them give us a greater understanding of how policing professionalized as a response to organized labor.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one. Policing A Class Society clarified and made sense of some gut feelings I held while shining a light over various hurdles the early American labor movement faced. Enlightening!

[Justin H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I follow the understanding that US policing grew from two places: one being slave patrols from the South, and two being from cities in the North. This book focuses on the latter.

[Chitra Aiyar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Virtual Socialism Reading Group

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of police history from a Marxist perspective, focusing on Rust Belt cities (Milwaukee, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Pittsburgh) during the industrial boom of the 1890's. Harring investigates how capital controlled and defined policing in the North from its inception: how the business community richly funded police departments to protect their factories and other concentrations of capital; how men of industry frequently served as police chief in their communities between business ventures; how strikebreaking became one of the chief occupations of police forces during the Labor Movement. He also paints a picture of the turn-of-the-century be cop as a lazy, drunken slacker (police call boxes were introduced both for ostensible "public safety" reasons, and also to ensure that cops "checked in" with the station periodically instead of spending their entire beat at the bar). Highly recommended for anyone looking for a leftist take on policing in the U.S.