First published 2020
Los Angeles locks up more people than any other American city. Historian Kelly Lytle Hernández traces how this happened across more than two centuries. She examines the forces that transformed the City of Angels into the world's leading incarceration center. The book spans from Spanish colonial times through the 1965 Watts Rebellion. Hernández shows how policies targeting Native Americans, immigrants, and Black residents fueled the growth of mass imprisonment. She connects racial conquest fantasies to the expansion of jails and prisons. The author also documents resistance movements. Targeted communities fought back through jailbreaks, court cases, and uprisings. The 1965 Watts riots represent one dramatic example of this pushback. These acts of rebellion changed Los Angeles history and influenced broader social movements. Hernández reveals how conquest and resistance shaped the city's carceral system. The story continues today as Los Angeles remains central to American mass incarceration.
Genres: history, 20th-century, crime, 21st-century, activism, american-history
Vibes: emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: social-commentary
Setting: Los Angeles, United States
Period: Spanish Colonial, Watts Rebellion (1965)
312 pages · Paperback · The University of North Carolina Press
Content warnings: racism