Lynching of Mexicans in America, 1848–1928: Article Review
This paper reviews "The Lynching of Persons of Mexican Origin or Descent in the United States, 1848 to 1928" by William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb. The review examines the article's central thesis — that mob violence against Mexicans represents a distinct feature of American character not adequately explained by traditional frontier theories of vigilantism — and evaluates its use of primary sources, including newspapers in both English and Spanish and personal accounts. The paper also considers the article's historical context, statistical findings, racial dimensions, and the ways in which Mexicans responded to the threat of mob violence, ultimately recommending the work to students of American history and racism.
- Introduction: Introduces Carrigan and Webb's article and review scope
- Overview of Carrigan and Webb's Article: Summarizes article content, thesis, and statistical findings
- Challenging Frontier Theories of Mob Violence: Article's critique of frontier vigilantism theories
- Primary Sources and Evidence: English and Spanish primary sources used in the article
- Critical Assessment and Recommendations: Reviewer's evaluation and audience recommendation
- Historical Significance and Suggested Further Reading: Legacy of the article and related reading suggestions
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What makes this paper effective
- Clearly identifies the article's thesis early and returns to it throughout, giving the review a coherent evaluative thread.
- Moves logically from summary to source analysis to personal assessment, mirroring a standard critical review structure.
- Connects the reviewed article to broader reading (Foner's Give Me Liberty and Bruns's Zoot Suit Riots), demonstrating contextual awareness.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the critical book/article review technique of separating description from evaluation. The author first summarizes what Carrigan and Webb do — their scope, sources, and argument — before shifting to a personal and scholarly assessment. This two-stage approach ensures the reader understands the work before encountering the reviewer's judgment.
Structure breakdown
The review opens with an introduction to the article and its purpose, then provides a content overview covering statistics, sources, and thesis. It next addresses the article's challenge to frontier theories, evaluates the primary evidence used, offers a personal critical assessment including a suggestion for improvement, and closes with remarks on the work's historical importance and a related reading recommendation. The single Works Cited entry follows MLA format.
Introduction
In the article "The Lynching of Persons of Mexican Origin or Descent in the United States, 1848 to 1928," William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb set out to provide a realistic figure for the number of Mexicans in America who were lynched by mobs between 1848 and 1928. Over this eighty-year timeframe, the authors also attempt to identify the causes of this violence and to document how Mexicans responded to it. Overall, the work is very well-conceived and executed, providing significant insight into 19th- and early 20th-century American history. This paper examines the article by Carrigan and Webb, discussing its aims, merits, and accomplishments in detail, in order to show why it can be recommended to anyone interested in American history.
Overview of Carrigan and Webb's Article
The article focuses on documenting the number of lynchings suffered by Mexicans in America during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It provides a history of research on mob violence against Mexicans, details about particular cases, historical context, and statistics on lynchings — most of which took place in Texas, followed closely by California. The article also addresses theories surrounding mob violence, the racial dimensions of the lynchings, and how Mexicans asserted themselves to protect against the threat of mob violence and lynching.
The main thesis of the article is that the history of mob violence against Mexicans during this period represents a stark feature of the American character to which traditional theories of vigilantism do not apply. The authors argue, in effect, that conventional frameworks are insufficient to explain what Mexicans experienced.
Challenging Frontier Theories of Mob Violence
The authors' challenge to other historical viewpoints is evident throughout the article, particularly in the section that addresses frontier theories of mob violence. Carrigan and Webb show that these theories are limited because they do not fully explain the use of mob violence in places where legal systems were already in place. The authors contest that the legal system actually facilitated mob violence against Mexicans rather than restraining it. This is one of the article's most striking and original contributions to the scholarly literature on vigilantism in American history.
Primary Sources and Evidence
The evidence for the article is drawn from primary texts in both English and Spanish. The authors use a variety of legal and primary documents — including newspaper reports and personal accounts — to construct a detailed picture of mob violence. Primary sources cited include the Los Angeles Star (1856), the Delaware Herald (1919), the Minneapolis Evening Tribune (1919), the New York Times (1919 and 1877), the El Paso Times (1881), and many other examples. The use of Spanish-language sources alongside English-language ones is particularly noteworthy, as it allows the authors to recover perspectives that much of the existing scholarship has overlooked.
Works Cited
Carrigan, William D., and Clive Webb. "The Lynching of Persons of Mexican Origin or Descent in the United States, 1848 to 1928." Journal of Social History 37.2 (2003): 411–438.
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