Description
Book SynopsisMob violence in the United States is usually associated with the southern lynch mobs who terrorized African Americans during the Jim Crow era. This book uncovers what is by contrast a neglected chapter in the story of American racial violence, the lynching of persons of Mexican origin or descent. Over eight decades lynch mobs murdered hundreds of Mexicans, mostly in the American Southwest. Racial prejudice, a lack of respect for local courts, and economic competition all fueled the actions of the mob. Sometimes it was ordinary citizens who committed these acts because of the alleged failure of the criminal justice system; other times the culprits were law enforcement officers themselves. Violence also occurred against the backdrop of continuing tensions along the border between the United States and Mexico aggravated by criminal raids, military escalation, and political revolution. Based on exhaustive research on both sides of the border, the first half of Forgotten Dead explores the c
Trade ReviewOverall this work is very well done and provides an extremely important historiographical advance not only for Mexican American historry, but also for the study of lynching, vigilantism, and mob violence in the US. * C. L. Sinclair, Choice *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Note on Terms ; Introduction ; 1. Manifest Destiny and Mob Violence against Mexicans ; 2. Judge Lynch on the Border ; 3. Mexican Resistance to Mob Violence ; 4. Diplomatic Protest and the Decline of Mob Violence ; Conclusion: Remembering the Forgotten Dead ; Appendix A: Confirmed Cases of Mob Violence against Persons of Mexican Origin and Descent in the United States, 1848-1928 ; Appendix B: Unconfirmed Cases of Mob Violence against Persons of Mexican Origin and Descent in the United States, 1848-1928 ; Notes ; Index
