Routes of Compromise: Building Roads and Shaping the Nation in Mexico, 1917-1952 (The Mexican Experience) - Softcover

"A compelling analysis of the essential but overlooked impact of road building in modern Mexico. Exhaustively researched and cogently argued, few recent works are as important to understanding how state power, economic modernization, and nation-building converged in twentieth-century Mexico."-Susan Gauss, associate professor of Latin American and Iberian studies at the University of Massachusetts, Boston -- Susan Gauss "Comparative in approach and sensitive to the transnational dimension and the agendas of politicians, bureaucrats, and members of an array of social groups, Michael Bess's nuanced treatment of Mexican road-building is a must-read for anyone interested in Mexico's postrevolutionary experience."-Samuel Brunk, professor of history at the University of Texas, El Paso, and author of The Posthumous Career of Emiliano Zapata: Myth, Memory, and Mexico's Twentieth Century -- Samuel Brunk "A richly documented study of the national, regional, and local politics surrounding road construction in Mexico. Obligatory reading for students interested in state-building, economic development, and everyday conflicts over the spoils of modernization."-Barry Carr, professor emeritus at La Trobe University and coeditor of The New Latin American Left: Cracks in the Empire -- Barry Carr "Michael K. Bess has provided us with an easily readable and very valuable book. He weaves strands of economic development and political struggle into a cohesive and coherent analytic narrative. Routes of Compromise will prove valuable to historians of Mexico and students alike, as well as to anyone interested in transnational comparisons of roadbuilding in other situations."-Bruce A. Castleman, Hispanic American Historical Review -- Bruce A. Castleman * Hispanic American Historical Review * "This book is not just an important piece of political economy, but also a microcosm of the broader functioning of postrevolutionary politics."-Paul Gillingham, Americas -- Paul Gillingham * Americas * "Michael K. Bess's new book on road building in post-Revolutionary Mexico uses the network of federal highways and local dirt roads constructed in the first half of the twentieth century as an apt metaphor for the mediated and uneven penetration of state power during that era."-Casey Marina Lurtz, Journal of Social History -- Casey Marina Lurtz * Journal of Social History *