Why Walls Won't Work: Repairing the US-Mexico Divide

by Michael Dear

Overview

Why Walls Won't Work is a sweeping account of life along the United States-Mexico border zone, tracing the border's history of cultural interaction since the earliest Mesoamerican times to the present day. As soon as Mexicans, American settlers, and indigenous peoples came into contact along the Rio Grande in the mid-nineteenth century, new forms of interaction and affiliation evolved. By the late-twentieth century, the border states were among the fastest-growing regions in both countries. But as Michael Dear warns, this vibrant zone of economic, cultural and social connectivity is today threatened by highly restrictive American immigration and security policies as well as violence along the border. The U.S. border-industrial complex and the emerging Mexican narco-state are undermining the very existence of the "third nation" occupying the space between Mexico and the U.S. Through a series of evocative portraits of contemporary border communities, Dear reveals how the promise and potential of this "in-between" nation still endures and is worth protecting. Now with a new chapter updating this story and suggesting what should be done about the challenges confronting the cross-border zone, Why Walls Won't Work represents a major intellectual intervention into one of the most hotly-contested political issues of our era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199323906
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/16/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Michael Dear is Professor of City and Regional Planning in the College of Environmental Design at the University of California-Berkeley. The author/editor of more than a dozen books, he has been a Guggenheim Fellowship holder, a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, and Fellow at the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, Italy. He has received the highest honors for creativity in research from the Association of American Geographers, and numerous undergraduate teaching and graduate mentorship awards.

Table of Contents

Preface 1. MONUMENTS, MEXICO AND MANIFEST DESTINY 2. MAPS WITHOUT BORDERS: CONTINUITY & CONNECTION IN EARLY TIMES 3. FROM FRONTIER SETTLEMENTS TO TRANSBORDER CITIES 4. LAW AND ORDER AT THE BORDER 5. THIRD NATION BEFORE THE WALL 6. THIRD NATION OF THE MIND 7. FORTRESS USA 8. MEXICO: NARCO-STATE OR FAILED STATE? 9. THIRD NATION INTERRUPTED 10. WHY WALLS WON'T WORK 11. AFTER THE WALL, WHAT IS TO BE DONE? Endnotes Bibliography Acknowledgements Index List of figures List of tables

Editorial Reviews

Brown University political economist Blyth (Great Transformations: Economic Ideas) abhors macroeconomic policies designed to curb debt and inflation by shrinking public benefits and, out of necessity, increasing unemployment. Blyth ably reviews Keynes’s anti-austerity arguments and outlines the risks of deflationary pull. He also examines the 2008 bank crisis in the U.S. and subsequent Euro crisis, stepping around Germany’s success as a leading force for austerity in the international economy. In an effort to strengthen his case, he offers a selective economic history since the 17th century, omitting the fiscal disaster of prerevolutionary France. “Austerity doesn’t work,” Blyth concludes, taking a line of thought that aligns with New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. Repeating this charge throughout the book, he argues that the “underlying crisis” in today’s global economy is “private, not public, finance.” Blyth never questions the quality of public expenditure or explains how to address voter expectations for the future. Though he calls his opinionated, learned, and sometimes glib volume “modular,” it feels more like a set of connected, fairly jumpy essays. Many readers will finish the book still wondering how to contain behemoth private and government debt and if Blyth’s solution—a sophisticated soak-the-rich tax program in the U.S. and Europe—is the best cure. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"At a time when so many fears and insecurities are projected onto the border, a book that talks about the realities of this area is a welcome addition. Berkeley geographer Michael Dear provides an accessible and informed overview of the border region. This excellent introduction to the borderlands should be obligatory reading for policymakers and new border scholars." -AAG Review of Books

"A very agreeable text, accessible to non-academic readers, which-together with the author's elegant and poetic style-at times creates the impression of reading a novel." -Documenta d'Analisi Geografica

"With the broad historical sweep and the patience to tell those earlier stories first without rushing ahead to our walled and bordered present, this book could become the definitive history of the U.S.-Mexico border. It is certainly the best I have read." -Geographical Review

"Those interested in one way that the discipline of border studies has developed to account for the post 9/11 context will find this book interesting and instructive; Dear's focus on the physicality of the border Wall itself is most convincing." -The London School of Economics and Political Science Review of Books

From the Publisher