American Passages A History Of The United States, Since 1865 Book

The book provides an excellent overview of the development of the American criminal justice system from the colonial period through the early 1990s. I was intrigued with the way the author chose to structure the book - sort of both thematically and chronologically - and it demonstrates to me that there isn't really enough scholarship on the subject for people to have come up with a clear periodization for the broad narrative. The writing style is also unique - you can hear the author speaking, as if he's giving a (witty and well constructed) lecture. He doesn't provide as many specific examples as one might like.