Review by Choice Review
Predictions of the end of nation-states in the 21st century have proven wrong. There are more borders today than at any time in history. Thus, this collection on new methodologies and insights into "post-disciplinary" analyses of modern borders, with nearly three dozen entries from scholars across the globe, is very timely. Border studies has undergone dramatic shifts in research themes, theoretical approaches, and geopolitical foci. Modern border studies seek to understand the interrelationships of person, territory, and state in forming self and group identities. To do so has required scholarly flexibility and open-mindedness, which these essays both recount as historiographical reviews and apply in comparative analyses and case studies. The editors argue that the collection reflects the "coming of age" of the field, which has had to transform itself because borders no longer simply separate one people from another. Modern borders must accommodate human migration and exchange. Newly coined conceptual terms and phrases may at first bewilder neophytes to the field, but the contributions are designed to introduce nonspecialists to this dynamic scholarship. Essays include parenthetical citations, discursive endnotes, and bibliographies. Maps, tables, and a general index. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. P. G. Wallace Hartwick College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
