As relevant as it was at the time of publication, this landmark work remains timely and urgent in demonstrating how to examine questions of race, politics and crime in contemporary society. A formative text in cultural studies and criminology, it shows the relevance of conjunctural analysis to the current emergence of forms of authoritarian populist politics. Examining the crisis of the British state in the 1970s, the book explores how interacting economic, social and political conflicts and crises were displaced onto the problem of crime.

Now in the Bloomsbury Revelations series, this re-issue of the 35th Anniversary Edition includes a personal note from the authors about their co-author, the late Stuart Hall, and a brand new foreword by Michael Denning.