num_pages: 242
description: <p><p>watch The Author Interview On Knme<p><p>in Both The Historic Record And The Popular Imagination, The Story Of Nineteenth-century Westward Expansion In America Has Been Characterized By Notions Of Annexation Rather Than Colonialism, Of Opening Rather Than Conquering, And Of Settling Unpopulated Lands Rather Than Displacing Existing Populations.<p> <p>using The Territory That Is Now New Mexico As A Case Study, <b>manifest Destinies</b> Traces The Origins Of Mexican Americans As A Racial Group In The United States, Paying Particular Attention To Shifting Meanings Of Race And Law In The Nineteenth Century.<p><p>laura E. G&#243;mez Explores The Central Paradox Of Mexican American Racial Status As Entailing The Law's Designation Of Mexican Americans As &#34;white&#34; And Their Simultaneous Social Position As Non-white In American Society. She Tells A Neglected Story Of Conflict, Conquest, Cooperation, And Competition Among Mexicans, Indians, And Euro-americans, The Region&#8217;s Three Main Populations Who Were The Key Architects And Victims Of The Laws That Dictated What One&#8217;s Race Was And How People Would Be Treated By The Law According To One&#8217;s Race.<p><p>g&#243;mez&#8217;s Path Breaking Work&#8212;spanning The Disciplines Of Law, History, And Sociology&#8212;reveals How The Construction Of Mexicans As An American Racial Group Proved Central To The Larger Process Of Restructuring The American Racial Order From The Mexican War (1846&#8211;48) To The Early Twentieth Century. The Emphasis On White-over-black Relations During This Period Has Obscured The Significant Role Played By The Doctrine Of Manifest Destiny And The Colonization Of Northern Mexico In The Racialsubordination Of Black Americans.<p></p>
language: en
title: Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race
publisher: NYU Press