The Young Lords: A Radical History

Written by Nicholas K. Rademacher

Narrated by Joana Garcia

Against the backdrop of America's escalating urban rebellions in the 1960s, an unexpected cohort of New York radicals unleashed a series of urban guerrilla actions against the city's racist policies and contempt for the poor. Their dramatic flair, uncompromising vision, and skillful ability to link local problems to international crises riveted the media, alarmed New York's political class, and challenged nationwide perceptions of civil rights and black power protest. The group called itself the Young Lords.

Utilizing oral histories, archival records, and an enormous cache of police records released only after a decade-long Freedom of Information Law request and subsequent court battle, Johanna Fernández has written the definitive account of the Young Lords. Led predominantly by poor and working-class Puerto Rican youth, and consciously fashioned after the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords confronted race and class inequality and questioned American foreign policy. Their imaginative, irreverent protests and media conscious tactics won significant reforms and exposed US mainland audiences to the country's quiet imperial project in Puerto Rico. In riveting style, Fernández demonstrates how the Young Lords redefined the character of protest, the color of politics, and the cadence of popular urban culture in the age of great dreams.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Feb 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705232965

Nicholas K. Rademacher

Nicholas K. Rademacher is professor in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Dayton. He is co-editor of the journal American Catholic Studies and author of Paul Hanly Furfey: Priest, Scientist, Social Reformer (Fordham, 2017).

Reviews for The Young Lords

[Iván Cabán Jr. · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the book very much. Me being of half Puerto Rican and Colombian descent. I really appreciate it this bit of History. I just really loved how the young Lords were extremely ahead of their time for some of their methods on organizing. The fact that they really extended the reach of brotherhood when they included the African-American community within their organization in spite of the fact that they had their own struggle & their own brand of agenda which being promoting a form of Puerto Rican nationalism and Independence for Puerto Rico. To add a bit of nuance, I view that as an example of what this USA nation could become if we just stop focusing on skin color or ethnicity and just become one people. The way that they were able to synchronize other Latinos of non Puerto Rican origin and how they were able to help consolidate the emerging ethnic identity which is the Latino identity was just a very provocative thing for that time in history

I'm not a pro Puerto Rico Independence supporter but I do consider myself an a US citizen who's proud of his Hispanic/Latino origins and thus considered himself a part of a historical diaspora especially when talking about my boriqua heritage.