Geographical Review
"Gilmore makes clear that the increase in prisoner population in California was not about increasing crime but was linked to a whole series of positive and useful effects in political economy that the prison system supports- lateral effects. Golden Gulag is must reading not just for those who are involved in the critical resistance movement but for all activists."
Annals of the Association of American Geographers
"Gilmore traverses an impressive amount of recent history, and makes insightful connections across both time and space. She rarely seeks refuge in the safety of tentativeness, reaching instead for the bold and provocative. Her attention to dynamics rooted in political economy separates this analysis from many that chart the prison boom. That she combines this with a keen geographic sensitivity makes the text richer still."
E3W Review of Books
"Gilmore’s historical, geographical, and organizational approach provides a useful point of reference for the state’s current efforts to downsize the prison population and relieve overcrowding. She encourages activists and scholars to consider previous institutional indiscretions when determining strategies for future reform."
Sacramento News & Review
As the state finally acknowledges the failure of the prison system, Gilmore’s book couldn’t be more timely—or more accurate in its assessment that California’s prisoners are our families.
Contemporary Sociology
"Golden Gulag excels at establishing the sheer number and variety of social sectors and institutions that depend upon the surpluses generated by contemporary society for their existence. Gilmore shows convincingly that those compelled to live in ghettos and who now cycle between the various stages of entrapment are fodder for a racially biased and ultimately insensitive society's highly adaptive reproduction."
San Francisco Chronicle
An impressive first book that stands as a model of politically engaged scholarship and an indictment of California's ‘archipelago of concrete and steel cages.’ . . . In this sophisticated, interdisciplinary study, brimming with new ideas, political savvy and moral urgency, Gilmore takes us on a demanding intellectual exploration of California's economic, political, spatial and cultural history. . . . Now, if you want to understand why progressive California leads the Western world with its regressive system of punishment, Gilmore's Golden Gulag is the first must-read book of the 21st century.
American Prospect
Golden Gulag is a valuable addition to the growing literature on America's redesign as a prison-heavy nation. The data is fascinating, the analysis compelling and deeply disturbing. It deserves, and hopefully will get, a wide readership.
British Journal of Criminology
Contributes new ideas to the debate over how America has managed to reach the current levels of mass incarceration. Rooted in her home discipline of geography, Gilmore directs the criminological gaze away from the workings of the institution itself, to its situation within a particular, historical, political and geographical moment. In so doing, she forces the criminological reader to engage with complicated empirical and conceptual issues that sometimes are relegated to the edges of our analysis.
Left Turn - Trevor Paglen
Golden Gulag offers a rigorously researched, original, and tightly-argued account of the rise of California’s Prison Industrial Complex during the 80’s and 90’s.
Social Justice
"In this sophisticated, interdisciplinary study, brimming with new ideas, political savvy, and moral urgency, Gilmore takes us on a demanding intellectual exploration of California's economic, political, spatial, and cultural history."
