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Book ID: CBB020950855

Power and Control in the Imperial Valley: Nature, Agribusiness, and Workers on the California Borderland, 1900-1940 (2015)

Andrés, Benny J. (Author)

Texas A&M University Press
Publication date: 2015
Language: English

ISBN: 9781623491970

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Economics Borderlands Racism Cross-national interaction Agricultural technology Agriculture Rural history Labor and laborers Ecology Land use Environment Water supply 20th century, early Mexico United States Western states (U.S.)

Power and Control in the Imperial Valley examines the evolution of irrigated farming in the Imperial-Mexicali Valley, an arid desert straddling the California-Baja California border. Bisected by the international boundary line, the valley drew American investors determined to harness the nearby Colorado River to irrigate a million acres on both sides of the border. The 'conquest' of the environment forms a central theme in the history of the valley, which supplies the organizing framework for the multi-faceted, multi-layered analysis Benny Andres provides in this study. Colonization in the valley began with the construction of a sixty-mile aqueduct from the Colorado River in California through Mexico. Initially, Mexico held authority over water delivery until settlers persuaded Congress to construct the All-American Canal. Control over land and water formed the basis of commercial agriculture and in turn enabled growers to use the state to procure inexpensive, plentiful immigrant workers. Andres analyzes and traces the bi-national competition over the Colorado River, the capitalistic transformation of nature for industrial agriculture, the creation of a racialized, hierarchical agricultural labor force, and the repression of social and labor dissenters. A complex synthesis of previous scholarship and new primary documentary research, this study will appeal to scholars and students across multiple fields of history - Western and borderlands history, social history, labor history, rural history, agricultural history and environmental history.

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Reviewed By

Review Douglas W. Dodd (2017) Review of "Power and Control in the Imperial Valley: Nature, Agribusiness, and Workers on the California Borderland, 1900-1940". Environmental History (pp. 145-147). unapi

Review Sean Parulian Harvey (2016) Review of "Power and Control in the Imperial Valley: Nature, Agribusiness, and Workers on the California Borderland, 1900-1940". Agricultural History (pp. 265-266). unapi

Review Nathan F. Sayre (2016) Review of "Power and Control in the Imperial Valley: Nature, Agribusiness, and Workers on the California Borderland, 1900-1940". Journal of American History (pp. 226-226). unapi

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