The 2,000-mile-long international boundary between the United States and Mexico gives shape to a unique social, economic, and cultural entity. The U.S.-Mexican Border in the Twentieth Century is the first comprehensive treatment of the fascinating evolution of the region since the beginning of the twentieth century. Drawing on the findings of the classic literature, new research, and current data, David E. Lorey considers the different roles that external influences and internal developments have played in shaping the border. Exploring the evolution of a distinct border society, Lorey traces broad themes in the region's history, including geographical constraints, boom-and-bust cycles, and outside influences. He also examines the seminal twentieth-century events that have shaped life in the area, such as Prohibition, World War II, and economic globalization. Bringing the analysis up to the present, the book assesses such divisive issues as the distinction between legal and illegal migration, trends in transboundary migrant flows, and North American free trade. Informative and accessible, this valuable study is ideal for courses on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, Chicano studies, Mexican history, and Mexican-American history.

Now fully updated and revised, this book systematically explores the dynamic interface between Mexico and the United States. In a comprehensive, richly illustrated survey, the authors consider the historical development, current politics and key issues, society, environment, economy, and daily life of the border region.

Systematically exploring the dynamic interface between Mexico and the United States, this comprehensive survey considers the historical development, current politics, society, economy, and daily life of the border region. Now fully updated and revised, the book analyzes the economic cycles and social movements from the 1880s that created this distinctive borderlands region and propelled it into the twenty-first century and a globalizing world. Richly illustrated with photographs, maps, and tables, the book concludes with an analysis of key borderlands issues that range from the environment to migration to national security.

The twentieth century has been scarred by political violence and genocide, reaching its extreme in the Holocaust. Yet, at the same time, the century has been marked by a growing commitment to human rights. This volume highlights the importance of history-of socially processed memory-in resolving the wounds left by massive state-sponsored political violence and in preventing future episodes of violence. In Genocide, Collective Violence, and Popular Memory: The Politics of Remembrance in the Twentieth Century, the editors present and discuss the many different social responses to the challenge of coming to terms with past reigns of terror and collective violence. Designed for undergraduate courses in political violence and revolution, this volume treats a wide variety of incidents of collective violence-from decades-long genocide to short-lived massacres. The selection of essays provides a broad range of thought-provoking case studies from Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. This provocative collection of readings from around the world will spur debate and discussion of this timely and important topic in the classroom and beyond.

For decades, Mexican leaders and scholars as well as outside observers have spoken of a Mexican university system in crisis, expressing concern over student political activism and violence, declining quality of instruction and facilities, crowded campuses, and lack of employment for graduates. When the government harshly suppressed a student movement in 1968, world attention focused on the turmoil that was endemic in university life. During the severe economic slump of the 1980s, the fundamental weaknesses of the Mexican economy--its inefficiency and inability to compete in the world--were often attributed to failings of the university system. Using original quantitative data on the graduates of all Mexican universities in a dozen major professional fields since 1929, the author explores the nature of this purported "crisis" by examining a series of questions about the Mexican university system: How have the changing policy priorities of the Mexican government affected the university's education of professionals? How have the Mexican economy's needs for professionals shaped the functioning of the university system? Has Mexico trained "enough" professionals? Have they been trained in the "right" fields? Has the university been able to respond to demands for upward mobility through higher education? The author's detailed analysis reveals a paradox: to the extent that Mexican universities may not be producing the kinds of expertise needed for competing in the new global marketplace, that educational quality has declined gradually over time, and that the university has not contributed much to social mobility, one may indeed speak of a crisis. Yet because the university system has reached its present form in response to demands placed on it be government, the economy, and society, responding pragmatically to circumstances beyond its control, the author concludes that the crisis is not fundamentally a university crisis, but rather one that lies in Mexican economy and society at large.