An expert on the history of mass incarceration explains why the Black incarceration rate was lower in the South than in the North for much of the 20th century, why recent decades have witnessed rising class inequality in prison admission rates, and why functionalist explanations of incarceration often cloud our scholarly and political thinking.

With Elon Musk plowing his wealth into a pro-Trump super PAC and Jeff Bezos blocking the Washington Post's endorsement of Harris, it's easy to overlook the more direct anti-democratic power of the entrepreneurial elite. Their economic power — the ability to shape the future of our society in utterly unaccountable ways — requires no insidious corruption of democratic procedures or public officials. The entrepreneur rules us without ruling through politics.