A Savage Song

This book examines key moments in which collective and state violence was used to invigorate racialised social boundaries around Mexican and African Americans in the United States, and in which they violently contested them. Bringing the often-ignored history of anti-Mexican violence into a common analytical framework with anti-black violence, it pays particular attention to constructions of manhood within key moments of social unrest and collective violence in the first half of the twentieth century. Using archival materials, the book thus examines how African and Mexican American men have been constructed as 'racial problems', investigating, in particular, their relationship with law enforcement and ideas about black and Mexican criminality. The book will be of interest to students in American studies as well as those interested in the sociology of racism and masculinity.

“'A Savage Song is a welcome addition to studies on the borderlands in the Southwestern region of the United States and black-brown relations in the construction of white racial domination. Aragon's keen anthropological eye helps the reader identify the sociological structures sustaining the illogic of racial domination. By analyzing the uses of violence in settler colonialism, on the Western frontier,and in the borderlands, Aragon shows us recurring themes in the defense of legal and extra-legal violence.'Luis F. Nu”

'A Savage Song is a welcome addition to studies on the borderlands in the Southwestern region of the United States and black-brown relations in the construction of white racial domination. Aragon’s keen anthropological eye helps the reader identify the sociological structures sustaining the illogic of racial domination. By analyzing the uses of violence in settler colonialism, on the Western frontier,and in the borderlands, Aragon shows us recurring themes in the defense of legal and extra-legal violence.'
Luis F. Nuño, Ethnic and Racial Studies

Margarita Aragon is Senior Lecturer in Sociology, School of Social Sciences at Birkbeck, University of London

This book examines key moments in which collective and state violence was used to invigorate racialised social boundaries around Mexican and African Americans in the United States, and in which they violently contested them. Bringing the often-ignored history of anti-Mexican violence into a common analytical framework with anti-black violence, it pays particular attention to constructions of manhood within key moments of social unrest and collective violence in the first half of the twentieth century. Using archival materials, the book thus examines how African and Mexican American men have been constructed as 'racial problems', investigating, in particular, their relationship with law enforcement and ideas about black and Mexican criminality. The book will be of interest to students in American studies as well as those interested in the sociology of racism and masculinity.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.