Prisoners After War
Veterans in the Age of Mass Incarceration
University of Massachusetts Press · Print & ebook · February 26, 2024
Winner of the 2025 Oral History Association Book Award Finalist for the 2026 Veterans Studies Association Distinguished Book Award The United States has both the largest, most expensive, and most powerful military and the largest, most expensive, and most punitive carceral system in the history of the world.
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- Who it’s for
- Oral histories trace veterans’ incarceration and its links to war, inequality, and punishment.
- Themes
- Veterans and mass incarceration, State-sanctioned violence and inequality, Survival, redemption, and reform
- Genres
- Penology & Prisons, Veterans' Stories, Criminology
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For younger readers: When Can We Go Back to America?, I Remember Korea, Vietnam
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Winner of the 2025 Oral History Association Book Award Finalist for the 2026 Veterans Studies Association Distinguished Book Award The United States has both the largest, most expensive, and most powerful military and the largest, most expensive, and most punitive carceral system in the history of the world. Since the American War in Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of veterans have been incarcerated after their military service.
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Identifying the previously unrecognized connections between American wars and mass incarceration, Prisoners after War reaches across lines of race, class, and gender to record the untold history of incarcerated veterans over the past six decades. Having conducted dozens of oral history interviews, Jason A. Higgins traces the lifelong effects of war, inequality, disability, and mental illness, and explores why hundreds of thousands of veterans, from Vietnam to Afghanistan, were caught up in the carceral system. This original study tells an intergenerational history of state-sanctioned violence, punishment, and inequality, but its pages also resonate with stories of survival and redemption, revealing future possibilities for reform and reparative justice.
Veterans and Incarceration
Oral histories trace veterans’ incarceration and its links to war, inequality, and punishment.
Come here for
- Interviews with veterans incarcerated after military service
- Connections between American wars and mass incarceration
Expect
- A six-decade history spanning Vietnam to Afghanistan
- Attention to disability, mental illness, survival, and reform
Where it sits
| Veterans' Stories | 76% |
|---|---|
| Penology & Prisons | 52% |
| Criminology | 48% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Vietnam War History
- Veterans' Stories
- Penology & Prisons
- Authors
- Jason A. Higgins
- Publisher
- University of Massachusetts Press
- Published
- February 26, 2024
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Veterans and mass incarceration · State-sanctioned violence and inequality · Survival, redemption, and reform
- Reading lane
- Vietnam War History