Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border (America in the World, 11)

Rachel St. John received her Ph.D. from Stanford university where she studied under Richard White. St. John then taught at Harvard for seven years and was a member of the history department at New York University. While this is her first manuscript, she has contributed a chapter to two essay compilations during her career, both of which were portions of her book.In this work St. John says it “demonstrates not only that the border lay at the center of a borderlands region in which private individuals and government agents continued to contest the limits of state authority and national identity long after the establishment of fixed national boundaries.” She also argues that by studying the border we gain an understanding of government priorities in Mexico and the United States.In an effort to support her thesis St. John divides her book into time periods, each one focusing on a theme. So chapter one focuses on the creation of the actual border line and covers the time period of 1851-56. Supporting her argument that private individuals continued to contest state authority, chapter two discusses the war(s) against land pirates and Apaches on the border. In this chapter St. John shows how filibusters, while a threat to the Mexican state, actually helped to “solidify a sense of Mexican national identity along the border.” Chapter three discusses the growth of capitalism along and across the border, while chapter four deals with policing the boundary line. Chapter five discusses war on the border, chapter six covers the regulation of morality in the area and seven is about managing immigration along the boundary line.The author spent time researching her manuscript in archives located both in the United States and in Mexico. Her work also relies heavily on synthesizing secondary sources, to include works by such eminent historians as Richard White, James Brooks, and Pekka Hamalainen. Noticeable by their absence was work by Julianna Barr, Sam Brunk, and other historians who either live on the border or who studied along the boundary, all of whom could have helped to diversify her bibliography and give her added perspective as well as shield her work from criticism of being biased toward the west coast/east coast academic power center. St. John’s method is to engage in lateral history, taking a cross section of different subfields, taking a time period and then analyzing the events in that period as they relate to the themes.St. John’s book is, at the end of the day, a synthesis, one which addresses many of the common themes present in borderlands history: transnational analysis, border fluidity and middle grounds, to name a few. The author presents the borderline as central to “state projects of territorial sovereignty, economic development, and the construction of the boundaries of the body politic.” In crafting this argument, St.John is again addressing a traditional borderlands theme: center vs. periphery. Because of this the effect on the literature is minimal.While the book is a solid effort and does add to the conversation about the Mexican/US border, the main criticism I have of it is the fact that the author mainly focused her research on archives located in the United States, having visited only two archives located in Mexico. One wonders how complete a picture can be drawn of the border when very little of the Mexican archives were visited. Furthermore, while her acknowledgements section is impressive (its a veritable who’s who of Harvard and Stanford historians), her bibliography shows an obvious bias to manuscripts published in the United States. Just as she only uses a few Mexican archives, the author also uses few Spanish language sources, something which weakens her argument in the long run.

While I have NOT received my ordered copy or the other order ('Migra'.....) I have nonetheless acquired "A line in the sand" from my research supervisor.It is one of the best books on the subject I have read as a an historian. Written by an historian it is well researched with an array of primary as well as secondary sources. It begins to define what borders are, what purpose they served and how these purposes changed over time. It refers quite eloquently to vested interests along the US-Mexican border and certainly introduced the reader to new conceptual frameworks for understanding the nuances of border control, border management and border security.The most interesting aspect of the book is that it develops a 'non-securitised' notion of the existence and meaning of borders. It does not dwell and was not intended to to dwell on the post 9/11 issues with which border security, control or management is mostly concerned today. In that sense - it was extremely useful as an historian and retired analyst on border security issues to reflect on the 'line in the sand' - as a former academic. It is an extremely useful addition to my research bibliography as a student (at 60!).Randi Erentzen, Pretoria, South Africa

Rachel St. John is able to take a rather boring subject, and craft it in such a way as to make it interesting for any reader. I find that the works ability to grab the reader is taken from St. John's inclusion of anecdotal episodes from the history of the towns on the border; which help to give some significance to the political and economic events which took place on both sides. History can be seen as very boring, but St. John takes strides to make this work an intriguing read for anyone.

We read this book for a book group. This excellent summary of the history of the western portion of our border with Our southern neighbor answers many questions. Any professor would love this book for its attention to detail an wealth of primary sources. More casual readers will appreciate its clarity and interesting anecdotes.

It has some dry moments but the further I get the more interesting it is to learn about the border.

Great read, especially for getting more knowledgeable behind the history of the border. Provides a detailed history of the events leading to the current border status.

Amazing book about the history of the western part of the US-Mexico border. Explains the little-known history about what the border was like before it's current militarized state.

This is the context of the Mexico-US border... It is a little like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid... PhD factual and very readable! A must read for our current times!

This book certainly leaves the reader wanting more. St. John often belabors certain points repeatedly and has a tendency to find wordy ways to restate many of her assertions. Much of the book covers the history up to ~1930 with the period from then to the present only being superficially addressed in the 10 page conclusion. Much more could have been done to cover the evolution of the various structures and related policies that comprise the contemporary border ('contemporary' here being defined as the last 90 years). It is also odd that this book contains nearly 40 pages of succinct 'Notes' on the various chapters. The material covered therein is often quite germane to the topic and one wonders if this content may have been better included and expanded upon within the main body of the respective chapters.