Lynching in the West

“Lynching in the West is an important and groundbreaking book, which revises the racialized history of lynching in the United States. Ken Gonzales-Day’s argument is based on extensive archival research, and his careful, nuanced reading of images provides a beautiful example of how cultural historians can use photographs as primary evidence in exciting new ways.”—Shawn Michelle Smith, author of Photography on the Color Line: W. E. B. Du Bois, Race, and Visual Culture

“In this meticulously researched and innovative study, Ken Gonzales-Day brings to light the history of lynching in California. As an artist, Gonzales-Day renders a stunning visual record of an absent history. As a scholar, he assembles the documents that reveal the racial violence that undergirds the development of the Golden State, the West, and the American Dream.”—Chon A. Noriega, Professor and Director, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, and Adjunct Curator, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

“Lynching in the West uses myriad resources, both written and visual. As a result, the book is also a thought provoking example of methodology. . . . Lynching in the West is a valuable example of an approach to visual, as well as historical, research.”

“In Ken Gonzales-Day’s historic and moving work, what we learn is this: the trees are not as innocent as they seem. They present disturbing details, hide valuable fragments of history, and figure prominently in the world of racial injustice.”

“The author’s archival research is to be commended. . . . The book is also innovative for what it suggests about the racial ascription and categorization of Latinos. . . . Although more attention has been paid to African Americans, their plight against state-sanctioned racial violence deserves even more scrutiny and should raise even more alarm than it already does. Gonzales-Day strengthens this cause by better revealing the depth and breadth of white supremacist ideology and history in the United States and by providing an intellectual logic for solidarity among groups of color united in a common struggle. In so doing, his book is one among many recent publications that reinforce the need for more comparative and relational approaches to studying race and its social salience.”

“This interesting book documents our current fascination with lynching and reminds us that violence reached into every ethnic corner of America.”

"An innovative, critical study of images, art, and archives that shows how the visual evidence of extralegal violence toward Latinos in California has been erased from the historiography of lynching. . . . Lynching in the West points toward the urgent need to revise the history of lynching in the United States. . . . It is clear that the book will become a seminal work on the cultural history of lynching in the West."

"Remarkable and unsettling. . . . Ken Gonzales-Day is a talented writer, and the book is at points highly readable, filled with crisp and evocative prose. The visual images, including a dozen pages of color plates, are bracing as well. . . . Gonzales-Day has made a major contribution to fields such as Chicano history and western history.”