{"product_id":"the-young-lords-a-radical-history-9781469653440","title":"The Young Lords: A Radical History","description":"\u003cp\u003eAgainst the backdrop of Americas escalating urban rebellions in the 1960s  an unexpected cohort of New York radicals unleashed a series of urban guerrilla actions against the citys racist policies and contempt for the poor. Their dramatic flair  uncompromising socialist vision for a new society  skillful ability to link local problems to international crises  and uncompromising vision for a new society riveted the media  alarmed New Yorks 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 surveillance files released only after a decade-long Freedom of Information Law request and subsequent court battle  Johanna Fernndez has written the definitive account of the Young Lords  from their roots as a Chicago street gang to their rise and fall as a political organization in New York. Led by poor and working-class Puerto Rican youth  and consciously fashioned after the Black Panther Party  the Young Lords occupied a hospital  blocked traffic with uncollected garbage  took over a church  tested children for lead poisoning  defended prisoners  fought the military police  and fed breakfast to poor children. Their imaginative  irreverent protests and media conscious tactics won reforms  popularized socialism in the United States and exposed U.S. mainland audiences to the countrys quiet imperial project in Puerto Rico. Fernndez challenges what we think we know about the sixties. She shows that movement organizers were concerned with finding solutions to problems as pedestrian as garbage collection and the removal of lead paint from tenement walls; gentrification; lack of access to medical care; childcare for working mothers; and the warehousing of people who could not be employed in deindustrialized cities. The Young Lords politics and preoccupations  especially those concerning the rise of permanent unemployment foretold the end of the American Dream. In riveting style  Fernndez 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45648299491381,"sku":"ByrdShop_1469653443","price":143.43,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781469653440.jpg?v=1781715558","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-young-lords-a-radical-history-9781469653440","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}