An award-winning, internationally acclaimed scholar, Kelly Lytle Hernández delivers historical analysis with clear relevance in today's sociopolitical climate. A leading voice on issues ranging from immigration to policing to the criminal justice system more broadly, her work is known for empowering a wide range of communities, providing the necessary historical framing to build synergy among some of today's most daring social movements.--Heather Anne Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water

Kelly Lytle Hernández is one of the most compelling historians in her field. Synthesizing the complexities of race, gender, and ethnicity into the fabric of living history, her work sheds light on today's crucial issues and her passion has the capacity to not only inform but to change minds.--Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times best-selling author of What Truth Sounds Like

In this sweeping cross-border narrative, Lytle-Hernández places the Magón brothers and the Mexican Revolution squarely at the heart of U.S. history--revealing not only the centrality of Mexicans to the U.S. story but also the currents of imperialism, racial violence, and political suppression that have shaped the United States as we know it today. In Bad Mexicans, Lytle-Hernández displays the skills of a deep thinker, a powerful storyteller, and an assiduous and implacable researcher.--Natalia Molina, MacArthur Fellow and author of A Place at the Nayarit

An astute historical analysis....a gripping cross-border study....While the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) is usually discussed in the context of its influence on Central America, the author argues convincingly that it 'also remade the United States'....The author combines a masterful grasp of archival material and accessible prose, transforming what could have been a dry academic work into a page-turner....A beautifully crafted, impressively inclusive history of the Mexican Revolution.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

I'm mad at Kelly Lytle Hernández. Every time I pick up something she's written, I can't put it down. I've lost hours, days, sleep, missed deadlines and appointments, made my kids late to school reading Migra! and City of Inmates, and, now, Bad Mexicans. Her writing is like a drug, riveting, intoxicating, vivid. And she's a damned historian! I come away from reading Kelly's writing exhilarated and inspired.--Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk

Kelly Lytle Hernández writes history and makes history. She is one of the most admired and respected historians of Mexican-American history and the United States. Conveying deep archival research in a compelling, accessible narrative, she breathes life into history.--Vicki Lynn Ruiz, winner of the National Humanities Medal

Lytle Hernández is a natural storyteller, and her writing shines throughout Bad Mexicans. And while it reads like a novel--she proves to be masterful at building narrative suspense--it's also meticulously researched, and the author provides ample context to help readers understand the history of Mexico and its relationship with the U.S.--Michael Schaub "Star Tribune"

Hernandez's staggering, essential study argues that 'the history of the United States as a global power' can't be told without Mexico, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans as central actors.--Walton Muyumba "Boston Globe"

What is profound about Hernández's portrayal is the way it reverberates outward from Mexico, through the borderlands, and deep into the interior of the United States and even Canada, casually brushing aside the notion that this era of upheaval was in any way confined by our frontier and framing it instead as part of a truly American story. . . . For a region saddled with so many grimly narrated histories, Bad Mexicans is great fun, full of the joyful resilience and tenacity that make the borderlands and its people so distinct.--Francisco Cantú "The New York Review of Books"

There is no Hollywood movie about the magonistas, although reading "Bad Mexicans" is like watching one....Like Flores Magón, Lytle Hernández's pen is her sword; her writing is a monument to the belief that language can change the world.--Geraldo Cadava "New Yorker"

Fantastic....absorbing....Hernández masterfully weaves it all together into a compelling narrative, parts of which I will read again and again.--Michael Barnes "Austin-American Statesman"

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Pub date: 2023-05-09

Length: 384 pages