Episode 827: American Literature's War on Crime with Theodore Martin

The second half of the twentieth century was marked by an extreme increase in America's prison population, from roughly 250,000 inmates in 1940 to well over two million by 2008. At the same time, American readers were devouring mysteries, thrillers, detective novels, police procedurals, and other forms of crime fiction.

In Episode 827, Jacke talks to Theodore Martin about his book, American Literature's War on Crime: Novels and the Hidden History of Mass Incarceration, which explores the connection between crime novels and the making of mass imprisonment in America.

For other HOL episodes on crime and literature, check out Episode 532 on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment in which Jacke takes a look at the classic novel of murder, guilt, and redemption; or Episode 140 about pulp fiction! In this episode, Jacke talks to Charles Ardai, a man who helped to resurrect one of twentieth-century pulp fiction’s brightest stars: the hardboiled crime novel, with its brooding heroes, high-energy prose, fast-paced plots, and seductive painted covers.