Book ID: CBB630915743

Watering the revolution: an environmental and technological history of agrarian reform in Mexico (2017)

unapi

Wolfe, Mikael (Author)


Duke University Press


Publication Date: 2017
Physical Details: 317
Language: English

Mikael D. Wolfe transforms our understanding of Mexican agrarian reform through an environmental and technological history of water management in the emblematic Laguna region. Drawing on extensive archival research in Mexico and the United States, Wolfe shows how during the long Mexican Revolution (1910-1940) engineers' distribution of the water paradoxically undermined land distribution. In so doing, he highlights the intrinsic tension engineers faced between the urgent need for water conservation and the imperative for development during the contentious modernization of the Laguna's existing flood irrigation method into one regulated by high dams, concrete-lined canals, and motorized groundwater pumps. This tension generally resolved in favor of development, which unintentionally diminished and contaminated the water supply while deepening existing rural social inequalities by dividing people into water haves and have-nots, regardless of their access to land. By uncovering the varied motivations behind the Mexican government's decision to use invasive and damaging technologies despite knowing they were ecologically unsustainable, Wolfe tells a cautionary tale of the long-term consequences of short-sighted development policies. (Worldcat)

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Reviewed By

Review Antonio Escobar Ohmstede (2018) Review of "Watering the revolution: an environmental and technological history of agrarian reform in Mexico". American Historical Review (pp. 1709-1710). unapi

Review Casey Walsh (2018) Review of "Watering the revolution: an environmental and technological history of agrarian reform in Mexico". Journal of Interdisciplinary History (pp. 167-168). unapi

Review Christopher Boyer (October 2018) Review of "Watering the revolution: an environmental and technological history of agrarian reform in Mexico". Environmental History (pp. 926-928). unapi

Review Beatty, Edward (January 2019) Review of "Watering the revolution: an environmental and technological history of agrarian reform in Mexico". Technology and Culture (pp. 317-319). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB630915743/

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Authors & Contributors
Alberto Malvolti
Veronica Ghizzi
Giuliano Pinto
Albert L. Park
Gabriella Garzella
Franco Sotte
Concepts
Environmental history
Environment
Water resource management
Agriculture
Water
Natural resource management
Time Periods
Medieval
16th century
20th century
17th century
15th century
Renaissance
Places
Italy
Tuscany (Italy)
United States
Colorado (U.S.)
Mexico
Nebraska (U.S.)
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