Borders of Violence and Justice

Brian Behnken is associate professor of history at Iowa State University. He also holds affiliate faculty positions in the U.S. Latino/a Studies and African and African American Studies Programs. He is the author of Fighting Their Own Battles: Mexican Americans, African Americans, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Texas and the editor of Civil Rights and Beyond: African American and Latino/a Activism in the Twentieth-Century United States.

"[The book] paints a detailed picture of a history still alive in southwestern society, not only in terms of its legacy but also through its continuous renewal. The foundations of the Southwest are tainted with blood that Brian D. Behnken painstakingly makes visible, recognizing and substantiating the generational trauma experienced by Mexican Americans to this day."--H-Migration "Behnken has delivered a book that operates at the intersection of policing, extralegal violence, civil rights, and empire--adding a much-needed corpus of knowledge about law enforcement in the Southwest."--Journal of Arizona History "Compellingly argue[d]. . . . Challenging popular myths that vigilantism emerged in the absence of functioning legal institutions, Behnken demonstrates that extralegal violence in fact operated with and through law enforcement across the decades of his study."--The Western Historical Quarterly "Offers a well written and much needed examination of the ways the Mexican-origin community contended with law enforcement in the US . . . . impressive in its scope and succeeds in demonstrating how racism became institutionalized in police forces in the borderlands . . . . timely."--Pacific Historical Review "The foundations of the Southwest are tainted with blood that Brian D. Behnken painstakingly makes visible, recognizing and substantiating the generational trauma experienced by Mexican Americans to this day."--H-Migration