This is a curious book. It is not a scholarly work; the authors themselves tell us in the “Preface” that it is addressed to a “broad audience” (p. ix). It lacks the scholarly apparatus of footnotes and references, and even the bibliography is thin; it lists no articles and only two pages of book titles without annotation to guide the uninitiated. It is neither history nor political analysis, but includes some of each. It is too disjointed to serve as a textbook and too cursory to satisfy the serious but nonexpert reader.
So what is it? It is a brief study, written generally in a light, breezy style, of some 200 pages—if we omit the four scenarios—that includes two chapters on migration, and one each on petroleum, the border, Mexican Americans, economic relations, and a series of other problems requiring attention. Brief historical narratives open each chapter and some political analysis/international politics are included in most. The scenarios make for some interesting fictional reading but are not very believable. On controversial issues, the authors are scrupulously evenhanded, perhaps excessively so. They argue the cases from every side on the treatment of migrants and Chicanos in the United States, economic nationalism of both countries, and the negotiations over Mexican natural gas, to name only a few. Oddly, though, in their chapter on Mexican Americans they have almost nothing to say about the political experiment of La Raza Unida and make no mention at all of José Angel Gutiérrez, a major political figure in Texas in the 1970s.
This is the first book (that is not an anthology) on Mexican-United States relations to appear since the discovery of the rich new petroleum deposits in Mexico. That factor demands a serious assessment of the changes and potential future trends in the relationships between the two countries. Unfortunately, the present study does not fulfill that need.
