City of Inmates

“An incisive and meticulously researched study of the transformation of Los Angeles from a small group of Native American communities in the 18th century into an Aryan city of the sun in the 20th.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

“City of Inmates shows Los Angeles as being, from its founding, a place of mass incarceration and popular resistance to policing.”—Héctor Tobar, New York Times

“A groundbreaking history of the city and the people it has put behind bars.”—Los Angeles Times

“An astoundingly original evaluation of the central place of incarceration in the history of Los Angeles. . . . City of Inmates is a book that should be read by every person seriously concerned with the question of how we got to where we are, and where we might go from here.”—Pacific Historical Review

“An extraordinary book—bracing, brave, and profoundly important. . . . This pathbreaking piece of work. . . . is not only beautifully written, brilliantly researched, and an invaluable historiographical contribution. It is also deeply morally urgent.”—Journal of African American History

“A beautifully narrated, deeply insightful historical assessment of the dynamics of American settler colonialism. . . . Remarkable for the depth and breadth of the research that undergirds each of its narratives.”—Journal of American History

“Hernandez puts in perspective the arrests, convictions, and incarceration for one city that contributes to the US being the carceral capital of the world. Recommended.”—CHOICE

“Convincingly demonstrates that the history of American prisons indexes major social and political battles of the country’s history.”—Western Historical Quarterly

“Offers a radically new perspective. . . . . City of Inmates demonstrates incontrovertibly that the systems of immigrant exclusion and mass incarceration emerged together and fed each other.”—The Metropole

“Path-breaking. . . . This outstanding book is a testament to the longstanding carceral history of BIPOC in Los Angeles.”—Latino Book Review