Person

Heather Ann Thompson

Bylines

How the NY Post and the NY Daily News Turned Victims Into Criminals

The role of tabloid journalism in shaping the racist narrative of the 1984 Bernie Goetz subway shooting.

by Heather Ann Thompson via Literary Hub on January 28, 2026
How the Bernie Goetz Shootings Explain the Trump Era

A notorious event in 1984 divided New Yorkers in ways that feel extremely familiar four decades later.

by Heather Ann Thompson via The Atlantic
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on January 26, 2026
Reflections of the 60th Anniversary of Urban Uprisings in America

The media narrative used to discredit urban rebellions as violent betrayals of the civil rights movement has been attached to protests ever since.

by Heather Ann Thompson via Black Perspectives on October 17, 2024
Honoring Attica After Half a Century

It’s time to demand law enforcement accountability for the death of unarmed citizens not just on America’s streets but also in our prisons.

by Heather Ann Thompson via The Nation
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on September 13, 2021
50 Years After Attica, Prisoners Protest Brutal Conditions

If this nation hopes to achieve a justice system that is just, it must remain ever vigilant for any echo from Attica.

by Heather Ann Thompson via TIME on September 8, 2021
How Today’s Protests Compare to 1968, Explained by a Historian

Heather Ann Thompson explains what’s changed and what has stayed the same.

by Dylan Matthews, Heather Ann Thompson via Vox on June 2, 2020
partner

The Policy Mistakes From the 1990s That Have Made Covid-19 Worse

Being tough on crime and cutting benefits from the poor left millions more susceptible to disease.

by Heather Ann Thompson via Made By History on May 4, 2020
How a Series of Jail Rebellions Rocked New York—and Woke a City

It has been nearly 50 years since New York’s jails erupted in protest, but the lessons of that era feel more relevant than ever.

by Heather Ann Thompson via The Nation
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on March 21, 2019
An Enduring Shame

A new book chronicles the shocking, decades-long effort to combat venereal disease by locking up girls and women.

by Heather Ann Thompson via New York Review of Books
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on October 7, 2018
partner

America Must Listen to its Prisoners Before We Make a Major Mistake

The anniversary of two major revolts remind us that tough-on-crime policies have created intense suffering in our prisons.

by Heather Ann Thompson via Made By History on September 8, 2017
What’s Hidden Behind The Walls Of America’s Prisons

Prisons today undergo criticism but in the 19th and the 20th century prisons treated their inmates as "slaves of the state.”

by Heather Ann Thompson via The Conversation on June 4, 2017
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Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage

Heather Ann Thompson

Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy

Heather Ann Thompson

Viewing 1–9 of 9

Bernhard Goetz leaving the New York City Police Department headquarters in 1985.

Strangers on a Train

Story of Bernie Goetz subway shooting and NYC 1980s fear, racial tension, vigilante justice legacy, and ongoing debate over crime and justice.

by Kevin Lozano via Harper’s on May 20, 2026

"Had to be Done" Red words and image of Bernie Goetz in red.

Vigilante Injustice

Two recent books take on the Bernie Goetz shooting—with differing results.

by Charlotte E. Rosen via The Baffler on April 15, 2026

Bernie Goetz

Long Before MAGA’s White Grievance, There Was Bernie Goetz

In 1984, a white man named Bernie Goetz shot four unarmed black youths on a New York City subway train.

by Paul M. Renfro via Jacobin on March 16, 2026

Prisoners raise fists in solidarity during Attica prison rebellion.

Revisiting the Ghosts of Attica

A wrenching new book recounts the bloodiest prison battle in our history.

by Tom Robbins via The Marshall Project on September 19, 2016

The inmates during a negotiating session on September 10, 1971. An uprising born of panic and confusion triggered a cascade of paranoia that extended to the Nixon White House.

Learning from the Slaughter in Attica

What the 1971 uprising and massacre reveal about our prison system and the liberal democratic state.

by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on August 22, 2016

NYPD in Bronx, NY

Blue Power

The rise of police unions, from a backlash against law enforcement professionalization to a political force in the carceral state.

by Robert Dubovy via The Metropole on April 9, 2026

Attica after state police stormed the prison, 1971.

How Should We Remember Attica?

Orisanmi Burton’s "Tip of the Spear" uncovers the obscured and radical demands of the inmates who staged the 1971 prison uprising—a world without prisons.

by Charlotte E. Rosen via The Nation on May 26, 2025

Before the Central Park Five, There Was the Trenton Six

In both cases, false confessions were used against a group of black men with only precarious links to one another.

by Denise Lynn via Black Perspectives on July 3, 2019

The Kerner Omission

How a landmark report on the 1960s race riots fell short on police reform.

by Nicole Lewis via The Marshall Project on March 1, 2018

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