The publication of this book by Mikael D. Wolfe is very good news for all scholars concerned with the twentieth-century history of Mexico and Latin America. It is testimony to the relevance of gaining greater insights into the relationship between nature and society so as to achieve a more varied, complex vision. The author's aim is to develop an “envirotech” history—that is, to study the historical boundaries of the nature-society interrelation. Thus, he focuses on environment, technology, engineers, and engineering.
This book includes an in-depth, comprehensive study of water uses in the arid Comarca Lagunera region in north-central Mexico (Durango and Coahuila), one of the country's major agricultural areas that has been studied extensively by historians. The book joins a long list of prestigious works including those by Clarence Senior (in 1940), Clifton Kroeber (in 1983), Manuel Plana (in 1984), William Meyers (in 1994), and Eva Luisa Rivas (in 2011)....
