| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.5

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 250 words from this article are provided below; about 655 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Clare V. McKanna, Jr. Race and Homicide in Nineteenth-Century California. (Wilbur S. Shepperson Series in History and Humanities.) Reno: University of Nevada Press. 2002. Pp. xii, 148. $29.95.

Clare V. McKanna, Jr. compares the experiences of American Indians, Hispanics, Chinese, and whites who were accused of homicide in California between 1850 and 1900. He devotes a chapter to each of these groups. McKanna defines "whites" as anyone of European origin other than Hispanic, and for the purposes of this review I will follow his definition. McKanna argues that "the interaction of race, social status, and marginality in nineteenth-century California greatly affected what happened to defendants within the criminal justice systems, and in fact acted as a stimulus for racial violence" (p. 2). He analyzes homicide data from seven counties (Calaveras, Sacramento, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, and Tuolumne). His statistical observations include the number and percentage of accused murderers and their victims by race; percentage of indictments and convictions by race; prison population by race; prison mortality rates; and homicide rates for selected counties. McKanna fleshes out his statistics with narratives of specific crimes drawn from court testimony and coroners' reports. In general, McKanna's conclusions are what one would expect. People of color (with one interesting exception) seldom got a fair hearing because they could not afford adequate legal counsel and because of the deep racial prejudice of the day. Poor white defendants were also disadvantaged.

. . .

There are about 655 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.