"A timely and much-needed collection. One of the few volumes that seeks to compare and contrast the experiences of ethnic Mexican workers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border."

--David G. Gutierrez, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of California, San Diego

Scholarly Resources, Inc. Web Site, September, 2000

The history of Mexican and Mexican-American working classes has been segregated by the political boundary that separates the United States of America from the United States of Mexico. As a result, the social, cultural, and political threads that the two groups hold in common have long been ignored.

Compiled by John Mason Hart, one of the leading North American experts on the Mexican Revolution, Border Crossings: Mexican and Mexican-American Workers explores the historical process behind the formation of the Mexican and Mexican-American working classes. This study connects the history of their experiences from Mexico?s cultural beginnings and the rise of its industrialism to the late twentieth century in the United States. Border Crossings notes the similar social experiences and strategies of Mexican workers in both countries, community formation and community organizations, their mutual aid efforts, the movements of people between Mexico and Mexican- American communities, the roles of women, and the arrangement of political groups. Finally, this volume addresses the special conditions of Mexicans in the United States, including the creation of a Mexican-American middle class, the impact of American racism on Mexican communities, and the nature and evolution of border towns and the borderlands.