Theodore Martin is associate professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Contemporary Drift: Genre, Historicism, and the Problem of the Present (Columbia, 2017).

Theodore Martin deftly illustrates how crime fiction helped inaugurate and maintain mass incarceration in the postwar decades. With breathtaking scope, American Literature's War on Crime argues convincingly that detective novels, vigilante narratives, and serial killer stories were instrumental to changes in policing and public policy. A remarkable book.

• Introduction: Crime and Fiction1. Invisible Men, 1940–19662. Riot Acts, 1967–19743. Detecting Domestic Violence, 1975–20004. Two Paths for Pathology, 1984–19985. The Novel in the Age of Mass Incarceration, 1992–2023Epilogue: And the Law WonAcknowledgmentsAppendix: Cast of Crime NovelsNotesIndex

Theodore Martin is associate professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Contemporary Drift: Genre, Historicism, and the Problem of the Present (Columbia, 2017).

Theodore Martin deftly illustrates how crime fiction helped inaugurate and maintain mass incarceration in the postwar decades. With breathtaking scope, American Literature's War on Crime argues convincingly that detective novels, vigilante narratives, and serial killer stories were instrumental to changes in policing and public policy. A remarkable book.

• Introduction: Crime and Fiction1. Invisible Men, 1940–19662. Riot Acts, 1967–19743. Detecting Domestic Violence, 1975–20004. Two Paths for Pathology, 1984–19985. The Novel in the Age of Mass Incarceration, 1992–2023Epilogue: And the Law WonAcknowledgmentsAppendix: Cast of Crime NovelsNotesIndex

Theodore Martin is associate professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Contemporary Drift: Genre, Historicism, and the Problem of the Present (Columbia, 2017).

Theodore Martin deftly illustrates how crime fiction helped inaugurate and maintain mass incarceration in the postwar decades. With breathtaking scope, American Literature's War on Crime argues convincingly that detective novels, vigilante narratives, and serial killer stories were instrumental to changes in policing and public policy. A remarkable book.

• Introduction: Crime and Fiction1. Invisible Men, 1940–19662. Riot Acts, 1967–19743. Detecting Domestic Violence, 1975–20004. Two Paths for Pathology, 1984–19985. The Novel in the Age of Mass Incarceration, 1992–2023Epilogue: And the Law WonAcknowledgmentsAppendix: Cast of Crime NovelsNotesIndex