Have you ever been arrested? If yes, you have something tragically yet beautifully in common with Angela Davis, Bill Gates, Elvis Presley, and Emma Goldman. You also have something in common with twelve million other Americans that every year are arrested, booked and photographed by the police.

Author Giacomo Papi uses a dazzling selection of recent and historical mug shots to weave an absorbing and penetrating history of the past 150 years in America.

From political icons Martin Luther King Jr.and Angela Davis, to A-list celebrities Hugh Grant and 50 Cent, eco-defender Ted Kaczynski to the actor who aided in Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, prisoners of Auschwitz to a bearded Saddam Hussein, all of them declare a simple truth: The last 150 years told through police photography is truly an alternative history. Booked brisk and insightful commentary enlightens us with intriguing back stories and little-known facts.