Bridging National Borders in North America

“[T]his book is a valuable contribution to transnational history because
of its analytical focus on border-making and the responses of people to this process. . . . For Latin Americanists, the book provides many insights
into the southern borderlands of the United States while not privileging Mexico’s US border. . . .The essays reward attention through their empirical contributions to transnational history and their emphasis on complexity, rather than any large scale generalisations.” - Ian Tyrrell, Journal of Latin American Studies

“For any scholars and students of borderlands, this is an essential new volume and one that will be of great use for classes and research.” - Sterling Evans, Canadian Journal of Native Studies

“The editors do a good job of grouping the various articles together by general topics… Many of the essays included would be useful in undergraduate courses…. [T]he book has me thinking about all the ways in which I might do borderlands history, which suggests that the authors have indeed achieved their goal.” - Linda Noel, Canadian Journal of History

“The essays contained in this volume explore many aspects of borderlands and transnational study as viewed through the medium of a variety of disciplines, not just history. And each is amply documented in a way that should facilitate further scholarship. Moreover, the volume’s two editors, Johnson and Graybill . . . have co-authored an excellent overview essay called ‘Borders and their Historians in North America.’ Students new to the field as well as established scholars will find the overview essay together with the rest of the anthology to be highly informative and likely to stimulate further scholarship in this area.” - Carlos A. Schwantes, American Studies

“A continental approach to transnational history, or the historians respond to NAFTA! These highly engaging original essays by emerging scholars tell new stories or re-cast old ones about the US-Mexico and US-Canada borderlands and border-making. Borderland studies of the north and the south presented in one volume facilitates cross-fertilization across previously isolated fields of inquiry, and illuminates the possibility of an integrated and comprehensive approach to the study of North America’s past beyond the familiar national histories of the three nation-states. These essays go a long way towards breaking down US-centric narratives about relationships with their political neighbors; they compel us to continue to seek out Canadian and Mexican perspectives on the fact and concept of living on and across the borders.” - Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Brown University

“These essays stand at the cutting edge of historical scholarship about the borders that are at the edges of nations. Bringing into conversation and comparison the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada boundaries, this splendid collection offers a new approach to the nation-states of North America by showing us how to think across borders and beyond nations.” - Stephen Aron, UCLA

“All of the offerings in this collection reflect skillful exposition, thoughtful analysis, and careful scholarship. Representing a broad range of topics from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, they provide a solid foundation and point of departure for further research in an area of intellectual inquiry that should become an increasingly important focus of attention of scholars in the future.” - Michael M. Smith, Southwestern Historical Quarterly

“Johnson and Graybill have done an amazing job bringing the study of the U.S.-Canadian and U.S.-Mexican borderlands into one volume.” - Elliott Young, Journal of American History

“This top-quality and thought-provoking study, in the reviewer’s opinion, will become required reading in borderland courses.” - Dirk Hoerder, Canadian Historical Review