The U.S.-Mexican Border Today (Latin American Silhouettes)

Product Description

This comprehensive survey systematically explores the dynamic historic and contemporary interface between Mexico and the United States along the shared 1,954-mile international land boundary. Now fully updated and revised, the book provides an overview of the history of the region and traces the economic cycles and social movements from the 1880s through the second decade of the twenty-first century. The border region shares characteristics of both nations while maintaining an internal social and economic coherence that transcends its divisive international boundary. The authors conclude with an in-depth analysis of key contemporary issues. These include industrial development and manufacturing, bilateral trade, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, rapid urbanization, border culture, population and migration issues, environmental crisis and climate change, Native Americans, cooperation and conflict at the border, drug trafficking and violence, the border wall and security, populist national leaders and the border, and the Covid-19 pandemic at the border. They also place the border in its global context, examining it as a region caught between the developed and developing world and highlighting the continued importance of borders in a rapidly globalizing world. Richly illustrated with photographs, maps, charts, and up-to-date statistical tables, this book is an invaluable resource for all those interested in borderlands and U.S.-Mexican relations.

Review

The U. S.-Mexican Border Today is without peer among books about this border. It stands unsurpassed in its comprehensive assessment of social, economic, political, and environmental conditions that have shaped this region in the past and in the present. For two decades, I have depended on this work to inform my students and to contextualize my own border research. This new fourth edition is the most engaging and insightful volume yet. — Daniel D. Arreola, Arizona State University

Simply the indispensable one-volume introduction to the U.S.-Mexico border region and must-reading for students and scholars alike. All the essential themes of borderlands policy and scholarship are covered: trade, urbanization, immigration, natural resources and environmental concerns, demographic and cultural hybridity, and the complexities of binational diplomacy in a region where survival and prosperity are fundamentally intertwined and interdependent. Crisply written and scrupulously documented, the book conveys a sophisticated understanding of the challenges and opportunities that attend to building binational engagement advancing the border region’s development, and the vital importance to both countries of doing so. — Stephen Mumme, Colorado State University

A site of important developments and debates, the U.S.-Mexico border has drawn great interest in recent years. All interested readers definitely should start with this clear and informative introduction. I have taught with it for many years, and I appreciate now having this up-to-date edition that puts recent controversies into the big historical, social, and cultural picture. — Josiah Heyman, University of Texas at El Paso

About the Author

Paul Ganster is professor of history and director of the Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias at San Diego State University. Kimberly Collins is professor of public administration and executive director of the William and Barbara Leonard Transportation Center at California State University, San Bernardino.