Reference Reviews

Doug’s Student Reference Room

The Borderlands: An Encyclopedia of Culture and Politics on the U.S.-Mexico Divide, edited by Andrew G. Wood. 322 p. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-313-33996-7. $85.

The U.S.-Mexico border stretches nearly 2,000 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, a region where the blending of local life and international politics, of language and of culture, of hardships and dreams of a better life, occur on a daily basis. The scope of this volume extends beyond the physical borderlands to the intersecting influences of U.S. and Mexican cultures, looking not only at the conflicts that arise over money, power, politics and different ways of life, but at the creativity and innovation that result from the coming together of diverse groups of people with common interests. More than 150 alphabetically arranged entries include topics on the arts and humanities, economy and labor, important events, institutions, key people, political programs, social issues and technology. Most entries are between one and three pages long, intended as introductions to the topic, and include suggestions for further reading. A list of entries by category, bold-typed cross-references and an index allow for easy location of topics. Recommended to school and public libraries that maintain active collections related to Mexican and Mexican-American culture.
—Doug Achterman