“[A]n original, provocative collection of essays shedding new light on the construction and negotiation of borderlands identity from the early-nineteenth century into the 1940s.” - Elizabeth R. Escobedo , Western Historical Quarterly
“[An] exceptional new anthology. . . . [A] set of insightful and nuanced contributions to borderlands history. . . . This is an important book that should be read both by scholars and students of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, and by those who are interested in the relationships between nation building and identity formation.” - Eric V. Meeks , The Americas
“In a brilliant introduction Samuel Truett and Elliot Young guide the reader through long-standing and current debates over the nature of frontiers, borders, and borderlands more generally. . . . This collection highlights some of the best writing in borderlands and Southwest studies and is suitable for classroom use. . . . Overall this fine collection of essays adds considerably to our understanding of this developing field and challenges historians to take seriously the ‘transnational historical terrain’ (p. 328).” - Marc Simon Rodriguez , Journal of Southern History
“It may be emphatically stated that all the essays in Continental Crossroads are well researched and thoughtfully presented. Considering the limited nature of border scholarship (which is so often closely linked with national projects), each and every one of these essays is original, refreshing, and interesting to read. They are vignettes, clarifying snapshots of border life, building blocks constructing a borderlands history which can and should be incorporated into national and regional histories.” - Paul J. Vanderwood , EIAL
“The editors provide an excellent introduction that furnishes a historiographical view of the borderlands as well as a discussion of the evolving perceptions of what comprise the borderlands and borderlands history. . . . All of the essays in the collection are well written and researched. They are united by the common theme of trying to construct, and even negotiate a borderlands identity. Collectively, they demonstrate the value of ‘remapping’ borderlands history as a meeting place of different fields rather than as a separate field of study.” - Don M. Coerver , Journal of Arizona History
“The essays in this book are well researched and clearly and concisely written, and the scholarship is solid and commendable. Beyond those seriously interested in the field, they also are appropriate for other informed readers and upper-division undergraduate and graduate students.” - Dennis Reinhartz , American Historical Review
“This collection demonstrates that engaging the social and cultural complexities of Borderlands history allows for the historical emergence of individuals, groups, and encounters whose histories have been erased by hegemonic approaches.” - Susan M. Deeds, New Mexico Historical Review
“Truett and Young have produced a theoretically savvy anthology that will promote additional research and writing about the U.S.-Mexico border. Their edited volume will find an eager audience among college students and professional historians alike, especially since each contributor has shown how far we have come since the days of Herbert Eugene Bolton.” - Michael M. Brescia , History: Reviews of New Books
"[I]nsightful. . . . [T]he authors skillfully advance engaging and well-researched narratives." - Martha Menchaca, Journal of American History
"This book should be imperative reading for all students and scholars with an interest in history of the Mexico-US border. Essential." - L.T. Cummins , Choice
“Using new approaches and demonstrating the results of extensive research into the archives of both Mexico and the United States, this pathbreaking book provides a new perspective on our common frontier legacies as well as surprising borderland stories involving Chinese immigrants and African American colonizers, transnational identities, and borderland ‘body politics.’ These highly readable original essays comprise a new history of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, one that is enhanced by poignant human stories. This seminal volume should stimulate new studies of U.S.-Mexico border relations in the years to come. Editors Samuel Truett and Elliott Young are to be congratulated on their accomplishment.” - Howard R. Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University
“While duly acknowledging the foundational work of earlier generations of border-crossing historians, Samuel Truett and Elliott Young and their gritty band of young collaborators bring into focus a more socially complex, multiracial, and multiethnic world of transnational players and history-makers. In their original essays, there are Mexicans and Tejanos, Indians and Chicanos, Chinese and Blacks, mestizos and Anglos, gringos and immigrants, and many more, jostling for room, power, and influence in this contested space in order to construct identities, build communities, and challenge and strengthen institutions. With more intentionality than their elders, Truett, Young, et al. seek to define the field of borderlands studies, a project that requires serious intervention into established narratives, methods, and epistemologies. They have thrown down the gauntlet; I suspect many more young scholars of the United States and the American West, of Latin America and Mexico, of Chicano/a and Ethnic Studies, will rush to join them because they sense that if they don't, they risk becoming obsolete before they even begin their careers.” - Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Professor of History and Director, Center for the Study of Race & Ethnicity in America, Brown University
