Policing a Class Society is an in-depth critical analysis of how ruling elites use the police institution in order to control communities. It is an urgent history of the creation of the police in the United States, focusing on the recently expanded cities of the industrial heartland. The book also provides a critical analysis of how ruling elites control communities. 'Policing a Class Society is a significant contribution to the literature on criminal justice history.' - Alexander W. Pisciotta, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

Crow Dog's Case is the first social history of American Indians' role in the making of American law. The book sheds new light on Native American struggles for sovereignty and justice in nineteenth century America. This "century of dishonor," a time when American Indians' lands were lost and their tribes reduced to reservations, provoked a wide variety of tribal responses. Some of the more successful responses were in the area of law, forcing the newly independent American legal order to create a unique place for Indian tribes in American law.

In 1887, when a young first sergeant of scouts at San Carlos Agency left his duty station to avenge his grandfather's murder in a tribal manner, he began an inextricable journey through three legal systems: Apache, military, and civil. Though his trials would not end in justice, each played its part in transforming Apache Kid into Arizona's legendary renegade of renegades. Tried for desertion and mutiny under military law, Kid escaped death by firing squad when his sentence was remitted on appeal. Civil authorities then charged and convicted Kid for assault to murder and sentenced him to seven years in the Arizona Territorial Prison at Yuma. Though Kid spoke no more than seven hundred words at his court martial, Clare McKanna's use of them in illuminating this legal odyssey is as compelling as Kid's escape and legend.