Land of Necessity

Alexis McCrossen (Editor)

Description

Published in cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University.In Land of Necessity, historians and anthropologists unravel the interplay of the national and transnational and of scarcity and abundance in the region split by the 1,969-mile boundary line dividing Mexico and the United States. This richly illustrated volume, with more than 100 images including maps, photographs, and advertisements, explores the convergence of broad demographic, economic, political, cultural, and transnational developments resulting in various forms of consumer culture in the borderlands. Though its importance is uncontestable, the role of necessity in consumer culture has rarely been explored. Indeed, it has been argued that where necessity reigns, consumer culture is anemic. This volume demonstrates otherwise. In doing so, it sheds new light on the history of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, while also opening up similar terrain for scholarly inquiry into consumer culture.The volume opens with two chapters that detail the historical trajectories of consumer culture and the borderlands. In the subsequent chapters, contributors take up subjects including smuggling, tourist districts and resorts, purchasing power, and living standards. Others address home decor, housing, urban development, and commercial real estate, while still others consider the circulation of cinematic images, contraband, used cars, and clothing. Several contributors discuss the movement of people across borders, within cities, and in retail spaces. In the two afterwords, scholars reflect on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands as a particular site of trade in labor, land, leisure, and commodities, while also musing about consumer culture as a place of complex political and economic negotiations. Through its focus on the borderlands, this volume provides valuable insight into the historical and contemporary aspects of the big "isms" shaping modern life: capitalism, nationalism, transnationalism, globalism, and, without a doubt, consumerism.Contributors. Josef Barton, Peter S. Cahn, Howard Campbell, Lawrence Culver, Amy S. Greenberg, Josiah McC. Heyman, Sarah Hill, Alexis McCrossen, Robert Perez, Laura Isabel Serna, Rachel St. John, Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo, Evan R. Ward

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• México
• Material culture
• Consumerism
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis
• Mexico

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 19 juin 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822390787
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

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∫2009 Duke University Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper$

Designed by Heather Hensley

Typeset in Minion Pro by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

Published in cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University

T O M Y FAT H E R Preston G. McCrossen (1933–2005) ‘‘As American as the Southwest’’

Contents

ix Maps

xi Acknowledgments

xv Introduction: Land of Necessity AlexisMcCrossen

PA RT IH I STO R I E S  O F  N AT I O N S ,  CO N S U M E

R S ,  A N D  B O R D E R L A N D S

3 Drawing Boundaries between Markets, Nations, and Peoples, 1650–1940 AlexisMcCrossen

48 Disrupting Boundaries: Consumer Capitalism and Culture in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1940–2008 AlexisMcCrossen

PA RT I IA N D  T R A N S N AT I O N A L  C I R C U I TS  O F  CO N S U M P T I O NN AT I O N A L 

83 Domesticating the Border: Manifest Destiny and the ‘‘Comforts of Life’’ in the U.S.-Mexico Boundary Commission and Gadsden Purchase, 1848–1854 AmyS.Greenberg

113 Selling the Border: Trading Land, Attracting Tourists, and Marketing American Consumption on the Baja California Border, 1900–1934 RachelSt.John

143 Cinema on the U.S.-Mexico Border: American Motion Pictures and Mexican Audiences, 1896–1930 LauraIsabelSerna

168 Promoting the Pacific Borderlands: Leisure and Labor in Southern California, 1870–1950 LawrenceCulver

196 Finding Mexico’s Great Show Window: A Tale of Two Borderlands, 1960–1975 EvanR.Ward

PA RT I I ICO N S U M P T I O N  I N  N AT I O N A L  A N D  T R

A N S N AT I O N A L  S PAC E S

217 At the Edge of the Storm: Northern Mexico’s Rural Peoples in a New Regime of Consumption, 1880–1940 JosefBarton 248 Confined to the Margins: Smuggling among Native People of the Borderlands RobertPerez 274 Using and Sharing: Direct Selling in the Borderlands PeterS.Cahn 298pmeloDE,kesYonLos, andLasSegundas: Consumption’s Other Side in El Paso–Ciudad Juárez SarahHill

R E FLE C T I O N S

325 The Study of Borderlands Consumption: Potentials and Precautions HowardCampbellandJosiahMcC.Heyman 333 OnLarFnoetarand Cultures of Consumption: An Essay of Images MauricioTenorio-Trillo

355 Selected Bibliography 397 Contributors 401 Index

iii CONSUMPTION IN NATIONAL AND

TRANSNATIONAL SPACES

[Duke University Press does not hold electronic rights to this image. To view it, please refer to the print version of this title.]

‘‘Employment Agency Sign,’’ Corpus Christi, Texas, 1949.arhpbyuRsslelPhotog Lee,courtesyRussellLeePhotographCollection,box3y183,negativeno.er1 — — 13918ef0014,CenterforAmericanHistory,UniversityofTexas,Austin. —

A typical Mexican home on the border, ca. 1910–1914.dartcospicphratogohPtnirp fromYaleCollectionofWesternAmericana,BeineckeRareBookandManuscript Library,YaleUniversity,Imageid016628.9