Brooks examines the history of racialized and militarized law enforcement in World War II–era New York City and how readying for war changed policing at home.

A surprising history unfolded in New York City and the NYPD of the 1930s and ’40s under Mayor Fiorello La Guardia: a type of low-level policing that anticipated later trends in law enforcement, including "broken windows" theory and "stop and frisk." Aiming to control juvenile delinquency, prostitution, gambling, and "disorderly" establishments, this mode of policing targeted Black New Yorkers, youth, and working-class women, many of whom met the new negative focus with resistance. As World War II began, and the NYPD looked for federal support, these targeted communities went from being framed as perils to urban order to a supposed threat to national security itself.

Emily Brooks researched her new book, Gotham’s War Within a War, at The New York Public Library. She discusses her research process and how the book recasts the evolution of urban policing.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Emily Brooks is a historian and curriculum writer at NYPL's Center for Educators and Schools. She received her PhD from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York in 2019. She is the author of Gotham’s War Within A War: Policing and the Birth of Law-and-Order Liberalism in World War II-Era New York City (October 2023) University of North Carolina Press. Her work has also been published in the Journal of Urban History, the Journal of Policy History, The Washington Post, Labor History, the Gotham Blog, and The Metropole, among other places.

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Courtesy Emily Brooks