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

Title
  1. Watering the revolution : an environmental and technological history of agrarian reform in Mexico / Mikael D. Wolfe.
Published by
  1. Durham : Duke University Press, 2017.
Author
  1. Wolfe, Mikael

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Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.

FormatTextAccessUse in libraryCall numberJFE 18-2874Item locationSchwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description
  1. xii, 317 pages : illustrations, maps; 23 cm
Summary
  1. 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.
Subject
  1. Water-supply, Agricultural
  2. Agriculture
  3. Land reform
  4. Agricultural innovations
  5. Agriculture > Environmental aspects
  6. Mexiko
  7. Water-supply, Agricultural > Mexico > Laguna Region > History > 20th century
  8. 1900-1999
  9. Agriculture > Environmental aspects > Mexico > Laguna Region > 20th century
  10. Agrarreform
  11. Land reform > Mexico > Laguna Region > History > 20th century
  12. History
  13. Agricultural innovations > Mexico > Laguna Region > History > 20th century
  14. Wasserversorgung
  15. Mexico > Laguna Region
  16. Agriculture > Mexico > Laguna Region > History > 20th century
Genre/Form
  1. History.
Contents
  1. El agua de la revolución (The water of the revolution) -- River of revolution -- The debate over damming and pumping el agua de la revolución -- Distributing el agua de la revolución -- The second (envirotechnical) agrarian reform -- Life and work on the revolutionary dam site and ejidos -- (Counter)revolutionary dam, pumps, and pesticides -- Rehabilitating el agua de la revolución -- The legacies of water use and abuse in neoliberal Mexico.
Call number
  1. JFE 18-2874
Bibliography (note)
  1. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Author
  1. Wolfe, Mikael, author.
Title
  1. Watering the revolution : an environmental and technological history of agrarian reform in Mexico / Mikael D. Wolfe.
Publisher
  1. Durham : Duke University Press, 2017.
Type of content
  1. text
Type of medium
  1. unmediated
Type of carrier
  1. volume
Bibliography
  1. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Chronological term
  1. 1900-1999
LCCN
  1. 2016058123
ISBN
  1. 9780822363590 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
  2. 0822363593 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
  3. 9780822363743 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
  4. 0822363747 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
Research call number
  1. JFE 18-2874
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