The United States imprisons far more people, total and per capita, than any other country in the world. Among the more than 1.5 million Americans currently incarcerated, minorities and the poor are disproportionately represented. What's more, they tend to come from just a few of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the country. While the political costs of this phenomenon remain poorly understood, it's become increasingly clear that the effects of this mass incarceration are much more pervasive than previously thought, extending beyond those imprisoned to the neighbors, family, and friends left behind. For Trading Democracy for Justice, Traci Burch has drawn on data from neighborhoods with imprisonment rates up to fourteen times the national average to chart demographic features that include information about imprisonment, probation, and parole, as well as voter turnout and volunteerism. She presents powerful evidence that living in a high-imprisonment neighborhood significantly decreases political participation. Similarly, people living in these neighborhoods are less likely to engage with their communities through volunteer work. What results is the demobilization of entire neighborhoods and the creation of vast inequalities - even among those not directly affected by the criminal justice system. The first book to demonstrate the ways in which the institutional effects of imprisonment undermine already disadvantaged communities, Trading Democracy for Justice speaks to issues at the heart of democracy.

Hi, my name is Tracy Burch and I came from a family of five, three sisters and two brothers born in Detroit.

My book addresses a very serious concern in our society. It is being abused and used by men; first of all we need to end this cycle of abuse. I am qualified to write this because my sister has been abused and used by men all her life, and she is the person who inspired me to write these self-help non-fiction short stories, the inspirational guide. Langston Hughes has inspired me also to continue to write about the personal, social problems in our society, especially domestic violence toward women and children. I hope my poetry and short stories will inspire other writers to write about their experiences.

There's nothing that gives me as much happiness as knowing that I gave each and every person some hope and lifted their spirits. The cover shows beautiful butterflies symbolizing women to open their wings and fly away from abuse into a better way of life.

"America at Risk" gathers original essays by a distinguished and bipartisan group of writers and intellectuals to address a question that matters to Americans of every political persuasion: what are some of the greatest dangers facing America today? The answers, which range from dwindling political participation to rising poverty, and religion to empire, add up to a valuable and timely portrait of a particular moment in the history of American ideas.

While the opinions are many, there is a central theme in the book: the corrosion of the liberal constitutional order that has long guided the country at home and abroad. The authors write about the demonstrably important dangers the United States faces while also breaking the usual academic boundaries: there are chapters on the family, religious polarization, immigration, and the economy, as well as on governmental and partisan issues.

"America at Risk" is required reading for all Americans alarmed about the future of their country.

Contributors

• Traci Burch
• James W. Ceaser
• Robert Faulkner
• Niall Ferguson
• William A. Galston
• Hugh Heclo
• Pierre Manent
• Harvey C. Mansfield
• Peter Rodriguez
• Kay Lehman Schlozman
• Susan Shell
• Peter Skerry
• James Q. Wilson
• Alan Wolfe

Robert Faulkner is Professor of Political Science at Boston College. Susan Shell is Professor of Political Science at Boston College.

""America at Risk" goes well beyond the usual diagnoses of issues debated in public life like immigration, war, and debt, to consider the Republic's founding principles, and the ways in which they have been displaced by newer thoughts and habits in contemporary America. A critical book for understanding our present condition."
--Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

"In this penetrating book, the nation's finest social and political thinkers from across the spectrum take a careful and no-holds-barred look at the dangers facing the American political system. The conclusions are more unsettling than reassuring---but that is because they are honest and real."
--Norm Ornstein, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

"In the midst of overwrought pundits, irate soccer moms, and outraged bloggers, it is difficult to distinguish genuine dangers from false alarms and special pleading. This book enables us to do so, in a way that helps us to actually think about, not just feel anxious about, threats to those features of American society that are worth cherishing. The authors range in ideology and expertise, but they are uniformly judicious, incisive, and informative. This is a fascinating book about issues that the political system usually ignores or exaggerates."
--Jennifer L. Hochschild, Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government and Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University