Forgotten Dead

Mob Violence Against Mexicans in the United States, 1848-1928
Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-0-19-532035-0
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 320 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 629 g

Reihe: OXFORD UNIV PR

Mob 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 characteristics and causes of mob violence against Mexicans across time and place. The second half of the book relates the numerous acts of resistance by Mexicans including armed self-defense, crusading journalism, and lobbying by diplomats who pressured the United States to honor its rhetorical commitment to democracy.

In reconstructing these stories, the authors provide detailed case studies and assess how Mexican lynching victims came in the minds of many Americans to be the "forgotten dead." The conclusion of the book also contains the first-ever inventory of Mexican victims of mob violence in the United States. With Latinos having an increasingly powerful influence on American public life, this book provides a timely account of their historical struggle for recognition of civil and human rights.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Carrigan, William D.

Webb, Clive

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziale Ungleichheit, Armut, Rassismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Minderheiten, Interkulturelle & Multikulturelle Fragen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Acknowledgments

- 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

Über Autor(innen)

William D. Carrigan is Professor of History, Rowan University, and author of The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916

Clive Webb is Professor of Modern American History, University of Sussex. He is the author of Fight Against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights and editor of Massive Resistance.