Try free for 30 days
-
Border Land, Border Water
- A History of Construction on the US-Mexico Divide
- Narrated by: David Angelo
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $26.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's Summary
From the boundary surveys of the 1850s to the ever-expanding fences and highway networks of the 21st century, Border Land, Border Water examines the history of the construction projects that have shaped the region where the United States and Mexico meet.
Tracing the accretion of ports of entry, boundary markers, transportation networks, fences and barriers, surveillance infrastructure, and dams and other river engineering projects, C. J. Alvarez advances a broad chronological narrative that captures the full life cycle of border building. He explains how initial groundbreaking in the nineteenth century transitioned to unbridled faith in the capacity to control the movement of people, goods, and water through the use of physical structures.
By the 1960s, however, the built environment of the border began to display increasingly obvious systemic flaws. More often than not, Alvarez shows, federal agencies in both countries responded with more construction—“compensatory building” designed to mitigate unsustainable policies relating to immigration, black markets, and the natural world. Border Land, Border Water reframes our understanding of how the border has come to look and function as it does and is essential to current debates about the future of the US-Mexico divide.
The book is published by University of Texas Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
Critic Reviews
"A must-read for historians of the US-Mexico divide, environmental historians, and anyone interested in better understanding from a historical perspective...." (New Books Network)
"An impressive study…essential reading...." (Pacific Historical Review)
"Thoroughly enthralling work...stands with the best of borderlands histories." (Hispanic American Historical Review)