Robert Perkinson is an Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at UH Mānoa. His teaching and research interests include social and political history, racism and politics, and social movements. His book, Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire, won the PEN American Center’s John Kenneth Galbraith Award, and he has been published in the New York Times, New Republic, Boston Review, and The Nation. He received his BA from CU Boulder and his MA and PhD from Yale University. At UH Mānoa, he directed the UH Presidential Center Initiative, and he coordinates the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series.