Tip of the Spear

"“A fresh and urgent interpretation of the meaning of Attica. . . . Burton has crafted a masterpiece that, as much as any single book can, shows the way forward for a new generation of activist-scholars, agitators, revolutionaries, and other partisans of human liberation, to redeem the dead and build a new society in their name.” * Los Angeles Review of Books * “Burton gives readers a deeply-felt look at the activists who participated in these revolts. . . . His interviews with survivors are incisive and reflect an appreciation of the political knowledge and passion that led these men to foment rebellion, however risky.” * The Progressive * ""Magnificent. . . . Tip of the Spear is a massive accomplishment of scholarship and political analysis."" * Propaganda in Focus * “Not only is Tip of the Spear an important addition to the growing volume of literature regarding the role of prisons in the racist capitalist state that is the United States, the thesis of the text represents a major evolution in the historical representation of US prisons.” * CounterPunch * “A remarkable account of how prison repression and reform intertwine, one that poses fundamental dilemmas about whether our legal system can ever properly serve movements for social change. It is a book that will unsettle and enrage you. It should also become the account of Attica that every interested person reads.” * Inquest * ""With Tip of the Spear, Burton hasn’t just salvaged the imprisoned Black radical tradition from the condescension of liberal posterity, but provided a singular lesson in militant intellectual method, shedding stark illumination on the counterinsurgent genealogy of prison reform (between philanthropy and psyops) while doing justice to an abolitionist horizon oriented toward maximum demands rather than piecemeal adaptations."" * Verso Author Pick *"