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On the Edge grew out of a lifetime spent living and traveling across the American Southwest, from San Antonio to Los Angeles. Char Miller examines this borderland region through a native's eyes and contemplates its considerable conflicts. Internal to the various US states and Mexico's northern tier, there are struggles over water, debates over undocumented immigrants, the criminalizing of the border, and the region's evolution into a no-man's land.
The book investigates how we live on this contested land --how we make our place in its oft-arid terrain; an ecosystem that burns easily and floods often and defies our efforts to nestle in its foothills, canyons, and washes.
Exploring the challenges in the Southwest of learning how to live within this complex natural system while grasping its historical and environmental frameworks. Understanding these framing devices is critical to reaching the political accommodations necessary to build a more generous society, a more habitable landscape, and a more just community, whatever our documented status or species.
The book investigates how we live on this contested land --how we make our place in its oft-arid terrain; an ecosystem that burns easily and floods often and defies our efforts to nestle in its foothills, canyons, and washes.
Exploring the challenges in the Southwest of learning how to live within this complex natural system while grasping its historical and environmental frameworks. Understanding these framing devices is critical to reaching the political accommodations necessary to build a more generous society, a more habitable landscape, and a more just community, whatever our documented status or species.
Price: $13.99
Pages: 272
Publisher: Trinity University Press
Imprint: Trinity University Press
Publication Date:
12 March 2013
ISBN: 9781595341488
Format: eBook
BISACs:
NATURE / Essays, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Environmental Policy, SCIENCE / Environmental Science, NATURE / Environmental Conservation & Protection
"One of the environmental history profession's most thoughtful and astute observers (not to mention most graceful writers) shares with us his accumulated wisdom about the pasts and presents of places her has come to know deeply.…Wise, witty, and intriguing."—Environmental History
“Miller’s advocacy of protecting the environment and creating livable cities has inspired public officials to invest in the central city and enhance our natural world.”— Nelson Wolff, Bexar Country Judge
“A timely, thought-provoking collection of essays about the unique blend of history, politics, and culture that can only be found in the American Southwest.”— San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro
“The essays are, in a way, meditations on how people live in their surroundings. They also seem like stories designed to relay concrete, thought-provoking insights to consider regarding the environment and creating livable cities along with cultural, political, and historical perspectives unique to the Southwest.”— Book News
“Former Trinity University history professor Char Miller’s taut, insightful essays focus on 'the American Southwest, a region I have known, loved and misunderstood.'”— Dallas Morning News
“Char Miller weaves local history and current issues into broader imperatives about how we live in places, with (or against) nature and each other.”— Vera Norwood, author of Made from This Earth
“On the Edge is a book that above all invites the reader to engage in something desperately lacking in contemporary political discourse: an intelligent conversation about the places we make our homes.”— San Antonio Express-News
“Miller’s advocacy of protecting the environment and creating livable cities has inspired public officials to invest in the central city and enhance our natural world.”— Nelson Wolff, Bexar Country Judge
“A timely, thought-provoking collection of essays about the unique blend of history, politics, and culture that can only be found in the American Southwest.”— San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro
“The essays are, in a way, meditations on how people live in their surroundings. They also seem like stories designed to relay concrete, thought-provoking insights to consider regarding the environment and creating livable cities along with cultural, political, and historical perspectives unique to the Southwest.”— Book News
“Former Trinity University history professor Char Miller’s taut, insightful essays focus on 'the American Southwest, a region I have known, loved and misunderstood.'”— Dallas Morning News
“Char Miller weaves local history and current issues into broader imperatives about how we live in places, with (or against) nature and each other.”— Vera Norwood, author of Made from This Earth
“On the Edge is a book that above all invites the reader to engage in something desperately lacking in contemporary political discourse: an intelligent conversation about the places we make our homes.”— San Antonio Express-News
Char Miller, who grew up in Darien, CT, received his BA from Pitzer College, and his MA and Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University. For 26 wonderful years, he taught U. S. history and urban studies at Trinity University in San Antonio. Now he directs the Environmental Analysis Program at Pomona College (Claremont CA), where he is the W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis. Miller has served as a Contributing Writer for the Texas Observer, and as Associate Editor of Environmental History and the Journal of Forestry. He is a Senior Fellow at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation, and writes a column for KCET (Los Angeles), entitled Golden Green, which focuses on environmental issues in California and the west.
Introduction: Center Points
1. Alamo City
White Gold
City Brew
Organizing for War
Political Legend
Buyer’s Remorse
Danger: Work Ahead
Holy Moses!
Repairing Eden
Springtime
Central Core
Going for Green
Ebb and Flow
Back to Nature
2. Rough Waters
Rough Waters
Storm Warning
Ike’s Wake
3. Borderline Anxieties
Fiery Deaths
Lockup
Highway Robbery
Homeland Insecurity
Why Friendship Park Mattered
Praise Song
Political Agency
Bulldozing Nature
Behind Bars
Walled Off
Just Litter
Wandering in the Wilderness
4. Southland
On Fire
Up in Smoke
Sliding Away
Shaken and Stirred
On the Wild Side
Forget the Garden of Eden
Let It Be
Damaged Desert
Step Back
Net Loss
Shady Dealings
Breathe Deep
Pumped Dry
Course Correction
Mud Fight
Afterword: Homeward Bound
Acknowledgments
1. Alamo City
White Gold
City Brew
Organizing for War
Political Legend
Buyer’s Remorse
Danger: Work Ahead
Holy Moses!
Repairing Eden
Springtime
Central Core
Going for Green
Ebb and Flow
Back to Nature
2. Rough Waters
Rough Waters
Storm Warning
Ike’s Wake
3. Borderline Anxieties
Fiery Deaths
Lockup
Highway Robbery
Homeland Insecurity
Why Friendship Park Mattered
Praise Song
Political Agency
Bulldozing Nature
Behind Bars
Walled Off
Just Litter
Wandering in the Wilderness
4. Southland
On Fire
Up in Smoke
Sliding Away
Shaken and Stirred
On the Wild Side
Forget the Garden of Eden
Let It Be
Damaged Desert
Step Back
Net Loss
Shady Dealings
Breathe Deep
Pumped Dry
Course Correction
Mud Fight
Afterword: Homeward Bound
Acknowledgments