Post, his book was described as an "exhaustive examination of issues" using lucid prose "infused with an urgency that depends little on hyperbole and largely on careful documentation". The book played a leading role in restoring whales to New York and New Jersey waters, and also in persuading the Department of Commerce in 2020 to act to protect menhaden. Prisoners and prisons A major focus of Franklin's research has been the American penal system. Prison Literature in America:The Victim as Criminal and Artist (1989) established Franklin as an authority on American prison literature and has been cited by historians, penologists, literary critics, and sociologists. In books such as his 1998 anthology Prison Writing in 20th-Century America and Prison Literature in America, Franklin argued that convict authors and artists are "innovative creators who have had a deep influence on the mainstream of cultural production", according to the Los Angeles Times. His work was cited in the Supreme Court's decision to overturn New York State's Son of Sam law. He has been an outspoken critic of the American penal system, in terms of violations of human rights. His anthology Prison Writing in 20th-Century America about "criminals turned raconteurs" has been called the best anthology of the genre. Books Crash Course: From the Good War to the Forever War (Rutgers University Press, 2018) Star Trek and History (Chapter 6, Wiley, 2013) The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America (Island Press/Shearwater Books, 2007) Vietnam & Other American Fantasies (University of Massachusetts Press, 2001) Prison Writing in 20th-Century America (Penguin, 1998) The Vietnam War in American Stories, Songs, and Poems (Bedford/St. Martins, 1996) M.I.A., or, Mythmaking in America, New York: Lawrence Hill and Co., 1992. Revised and expanded paperback edition, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1993. War Stars: The Superweapon in the American Imagination (Oxford University Press, 1988). Revised and Expanded Edition, University of Massachusetts Press, 2008. Prison Literature in America: The Victim as Criminal and Artist (Oxford University Press, 1978; Revised and expanded edition, 1989) American Prisoners and Ex-prisoners, Their Writings: An Annotated Bibliography of Published Works, 1798-1981 (L. Hill, 1982) Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction (Oxford University Press, 1980) Countdown to Midnight: Twelve Great Stories about Nuclear War (DAW Books) Back Where You Came From: A Life in the Death of the Empire (Harper's Magazine Press, 1975) The Essential Stalin: Major Theoretical Writings, 1905-52 (Anchor Books,