{"product_id":"border-odyssey-charles-d-thompson-9781477314005","title":"Border Odyssey: Travels Along the U.S.\/Mexico Divide","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"We were trying to change the vision and the conversation about border fears.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBorder Odyssey\u003c\/i\u003e takes us on a drive toward understanding the U.S.\/Mexico divide: all 1,969 miles--from Boca Chica to Tijuana--pressing on with the useful fiction of a map.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"We needed to go to the place where countless innocent people had been kicked, cussed, spit on, arrested, detained, trafficked, and killed. It would become clear that the border, \u003ci\u003ela frontera\u003c\/i\u003e, was more multifaceted and profound than anything we could have invented about it from afar.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlong the journey, five centuries of cultural history (indigenous, French, Spanish, Mexican, African American, colonist, and U.S.), wars, and legislation unfold. And through observation, conversation, and meditation, \u003ci\u003eBorder Odyssey\u003c\/i\u003e scopes the stories of the people and towns on both sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Stories are the opposite of walls: they demand release, retelling, showing, connecting, each image chipping away at boundaries. Walls are full stops. But stories are like commas, always making possible the next clause.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmong the terrain traversed: walls and more walls, unexpected roadblocks and patrol officers; a golf course (you could drive a ball across the border); a Civil War battlefield (you could camp there); the southernmost plantation in the United States; a hand-drawn ferry, a road-runner tracked desert, and a breathtaking national park; barbed wire, bridges, and a trucking-trade thoroughfare; ghosts with guns; obscured, unmarked, and unpaved roads; a Catholic priest and his dogs, artwork, icons, and political cartoons; a sheriff and a chain-smoking mayor; a Tex-Mex eatery empty of customers and a B\u0026amp;B shuttering its doors; murder-laden newspaper headlines at breakfast; the kindness of the border-crossing underground; and too many elderly, impoverished, ex-U.S. farmworkers, \u003ci\u003ebraceros\u003c\/i\u003e, lined up to have Thompson take their photograph.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Charles D. Thompson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1477314008\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781477314005\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Texas Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/05\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 328\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.70h x 5.60w x 0.80d","brand":"Charles D. Thompson","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47637232713983,"sku":"9781477314005","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_6116fdff-b988-4c06-b0ad-c15875849f00.jpg?v=1765114834","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/border-odyssey-charles-d-thompson-9781477314005","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}