{"product_id":"the-limits-of-liberty-9781496205797","title":"The Limits of Liberty","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eThe Limits of Liberty\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles the formation of the U.S.-Mexico border from the perspective of the “mobile peoples” who assisted in determining the international boundary from both sides in the mid-nineteenth century.In this historic and timely study, James David Nichols argues against the many top-down connotations that borders carry, noting that the state cannot entirely dominate the process of boundary marking. Even though there were many efforts on the part of the United States and Mexico to define the new international border as a limit, mobile peoples continued to transgress the border and cross it with impunity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Transborder migrants reimagined the dividing line as a gateway to opportunity rather than as a fence limiting their movement. Runaway slaves, Mexican debt \u003ci\u003epeones\u003c\/i\u003e, and seminomadic Native Americans saw liberty on the other side of the line and crossed in search of greater opportunity. In doing so they devised their own border ep\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Limits of Liberty\u003c\/i\u003e provides an excellent outline of the historical roots of today's US-Mexico border conflict. Anyone interested in replacing rhetoric with research would benefit from reading it.\"—John Dzwonczyk, \u003ci\u003eHistorical Geography\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eLimits of Liberty\u003c\/i\u003e is an important contribution to multiple historiographies . . . and [it] should be required reading for anyone interested in the region, the people, and their histories.\"—Jose Angel Hernandez, \u003ci\u003eNew Mexico Historical Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Limits of Liberty \u003c\/i\u003estands as a well-researched and deeply informative study of borderlands and transcultural studies. Throughout the nine chapters, it weaves together poignant, human stories in original, compelling, and accessible ways. Students new to borderlands history as well as seasoned readers will find much to consider in this work.\"—Claire Wolnisty, H-Nationalism\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Limits of Liberty\u003c\/i\u003e makes significant historiographical interventions and is an outstanding contribution to border studies, Texas history, and the history of the American West and northern Mexico.\"—Mark A. Goldberg, \u003ci\u003eSouthwestern Historical Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In this excellent and timely work of transnational history, James David Nichols assesses the multidirectional nature of human migration between South Texas and northeastern Mexico during the period 1821–1861, with an emphasis on independent Indians, chattel slaves, and debt peons.\"—William S. Kiser, \u003ci\u003eJournal of Arizona History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This is more than a timely read for scholars interested in the Mexico-U.S. border and the history of borderlands more generally. \u003ci\u003eThe Limits of Liberty\u003c\/i\u003e offers a scholarly model for understanding how distinctions between nations manifested on the borderlands and simultaneously how those who occupied the border helped define these nations.\"—Andrew K. Frank, \u003ci\u003eJournal of American History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As James Nichols reveals in this important new book, the U.S.-Mexico border has simultaneously functioned as a space of liberation and opportunity as well as a zone of confinement and limitation. Grounded in research in archives on both sides of the border and peopled with a fascinating cast of fugitive slaves, escaped peones\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003eand indigenous peoples, \u003ci\u003eThe Limits of Liberty \u003c\/i\u003eis essential reading for all borderlands historians.”—Karl Jacoby, professor of history at Columbia University\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“James Nichols shows how a dizzying array of historical actors used the early U.S.-Mexico border for their own purposes, sometimes pleasing national authorities and sometimes greatly vexing them. We are accustomed to thinking of borders as barriers, but Nichols shows how this border invited crossing and inspired dreams of hope and freedom. This deeply empathetic and creative study should be required reading for borderlands historians.”—Benjamin H. Johnson, associate professor of history at Loyola University. Chicago\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Limits of Liberty\u003c\/i\u003e skillfully captures a range of borderlanders along this developing and changing line of liberty; it especially excels by providing new perspectives on slaves and slavery, debt peons, vecinos, and the Lipan Apaches, using narrative accounts based on archival materials to reveal new dimensions of the U.S.-Mexico border.”—Todd W. Wahlstrom, visiting assistant professor of history in Seaver College at Pepperdine University\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“Nichols offers a prismatic view of the various peoples moving through the Texas-Mexico borderlands during tumultuous points in the nineteenth century. . . . By stimulating our thinking on what liberty has meant to different people, and in what ways freedom can appear and disappear, Nichols continues the important work of delving into the long-intertwined histories of Texas, Mexico, and the still-swirling spaces and societies between.”—Lori A. Flores, associate professor of history at Stony Brook University, SUNY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eList of Illustrations\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAcknowledgements\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “A Country in Which He Could Acquire Liberty”:\u003cbr\u003e The Making of Borderlands Mobility\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 1\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “La Frontera del Norte:” Lipan Apaches and the Troubled Rise of Mexico in the Borderlands\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 2\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Racial Fault Lines: Immigrant Indians in Mexico\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 3\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Impatient for the Promised Freedom”:\u003cbr\u003e Runaway Slaves in the Age of the Texan Revolution\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 4\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “A Great System of Roaming:”\u003cbr\u003e Runaway Debt Peons and the Making of the International Border\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 5\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Warriors in Want: Immigrant Tribes and Borderlands Insecurity\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 6\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Line of Liberty:\u003cbr\u003e Runaway Slaves after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 7\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Bordering on the Illicit:\u003cbr\u003e Violence and the Making of the International Line\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 8\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Not Even Seeming Friendship”:\u003cbr\u003e Lipan Apaches and the Promises and Perils of Play-off Diplomacy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter 9\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Sacrificed on the Altar of Liberty:\u003cbr\u003e Regionalism and Cooperation in the Age of Vidaurri\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eConclusion\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Mobility Uninterrupted: The Limits of Liberty\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBibliography\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNotes\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIndex\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49409219952983,"sku":"9781496205797","price":45.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781496205797.jpg?v=1730506004","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-limits-of-liberty-9781496205797","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}