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.

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

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