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.
Note about the Cover Image
Illustrations and Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Acronyms
Introduction
1Distinguishing Characteristics and Early History: Frontier, Borderlands, and Border Region
The Colonial Period: Life on a New World Frontier
From Frontier to Borderlands
Conflict between the United States and Mexico
Early Border Phenomena
2Booms and Busts on the Border: Economic Development, 1880s1920s
The First Border Boom, 18801910
The Border Economy during the Mexican Revolution
Prohibition on the Border
Early Free Trade
3Life on the Border: 1880s1910
Causes of the Mexican Revolution
The Social Character of the Revolution in the Mexican North
The Revolutionary Period on the U.S. Side of the Border: Transboundary Population Movements during the Revolution, Prohibition, and the Depression
4Booms and Busts on the Border: The Great Depression and World War II
The Great Depression
World War II
The Bracero Program
5Economic Trends since 1950: Legacies of War and a Globalizing Economy 1
The Border Economy Comes of Age
Mexican Government Policy and the Border: PRONAF and BIPthe Maquiladoras
The U.S. Border Economy
6The Consequences of Rapid Growth in the Border Region: Social and Cultural Change since the 1940s
Population and Migration
Urbanization
Mexican Americans
The Impact of Migration on Sending Communities
Cultural Evolutions
7Border Issues in U.S.-Mexican Relations: Boundary, Environment, Health, and Native Americans
The Elusive Boundary
The Environment under Siege
Public Health Issues
Native Americans and the Border
8Border Issues in U.S.-Mexican Relations: Drug Trafficking, Security, Migration, NAFTA, and Transborder Cooperation
Drug Trafficking
Security
Migration
Trade and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement
Transborder Cooperation
9The Border and National Politics
The United States
Mexico
Migration and the Impact on Local Communities
United StatesMexicoCanada Agreement
Border Leaders
Border in the Time of a Pandemic
Developing Twenty-First-Century Border Institutions
Suggested Readings
Index
About the Authors
