Mexicans in the Making of America

Neil Foley

• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780674975354, 9780674048485
• eBook ISBN: 9780674735675
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Mexican History
• Index: History

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year

According to census projections, by 2050 nearly one in three U.S. residents will be Latino, and the overwhelming majority of these will be of Mexican descent. This dramatic demographic shift is reshaping politics, culture, and fundamental ideas about American identity. Neil Foley, a leading Mexican American historian, offers a sweeping view of the evolution of Mexican America, from a colonial outpost on Mexico's northern frontier to a twenty-first-century people integral to the nation they have helped build.

"Compelling…Readers of all political persuasions will find Foley's intensively researched, well-documented scholarly work an instructive, thoroughly accessible guide to the ramifications of immigration policy."
—Publishers Weekly

"For Americans long accustomed to understanding the country's development as an east-to-west phenomenon, Foley's singular service is to urge us to tilt the map south-to-north and to comprehend conditions as they have been for some time and will likely be for the foreseeable future…A timely look at and appreciation of a fast-growing demographic destined to play an increasingly important role in our history."
—Kirkus Reviews

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Prologue: “America’s Changing Colors”
• 1. The Genesis of Mexican America
• 2. No Estás en Tu Casa
• 3. Becoming Good Neighbors
• 4. Defending the Hemisphere
• 5. Braceros and the “Wetback” Invasion
• 6. The Chicano Movement
• 7. Brave New Mundo
• 8. Fortress America
• Epilogue: “We Are America”
• Abbreviations
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Index