In the early years of the twentieth century; newcomer farmers and migrant Mexicans forged a new world in South Texas. In just a decade; this vast region; previously considered too isolated and desolate for large-scale agriculture; became one of the United States' most lucrative farming regions and one of its worst places to work. By encouraging mass migration from Mexico; paying low wages; selectively enforcing immigration restrictions; toppling older political arrangements; and periodically immobilizing the workforce; growers created a system of labor controls unique in its levels of exploitation.Ethnic Mexican residents of South Texas fought back by organizing and by leaving; migrating to destinations around the United States where employers eagerly hired them--and continued to exploit them. In From South Texas to the Nation; John Weber reinterprets the United States' record on human and labor rights. This important book illuminates the way in which South Texas pioneered the low-wage; insecure; migration-dependent labor system on which so many industries continue to depend.
#2139627 in Books 2013-12-09Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 1.20 x 6.00 x 9.30l; 1.40 #File Name: 1469608790336 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. World as it was.By helenaSuper; no wonder it won a major prize; this is history in all its diversity; absurdity; hope; and endurance; in a tale of marriage played out in the teemingly un-summarizable world of the 18th-century colonial Atlantic. Fogleman has drawn aside the veil of easy generalization and given us life as it was; for millions; and in the process given us the story of a marriage that; when hope had waned; endured by sheer endurance. You will hate and love this unlikely pair!
