Reviewed by:

• War and Peace on the Rio Grande Frontier, 1830–1880 by Miguel Ángel González-Quiroga
• William S. Kiser

War and Peace on the Rio Grande Frontier, 1830–1880 is a well-conceived, well-written, and well-researched book that offers new perspectives on complicated events that occurred in the Rio Grande borderlands of south Texas and northeast Mexico during the nineteenth century. Most previous scholarship on this time and place focuses on the prolific violence that characterized seemingly incessant warfare, banditry, raiding, and smuggling along the border. Miguel Ángel González-Quiroga argues instead that “alongside the conflict, another reality existed in the region based on coexistence and cooperation among Mexicans, Anglo-Americans, and the other ethnic groups” (p. 1). To demonstrate this underappreciated reality of borderlands history, the author focuses primarily on economic activities, but he also weaves politics, military affairs, and social life into the narrative.

This transnational study is organized into nine lengthy chapters, each based on extensive research in Mexican and U.S. archives. Although the chapters proceed chronologically, spanning the Texas Revolution through the early Porfiriato, one common theme is the borderlands economy and the ways that shared interests in commercial success promoted cooperation between regional inhabitants regardless of nationality, race, and religion. “To a greater degree than any other activity,” the author writes, “commerce—legal and illegal— brought Anglo-Americans, Europeans, and Mexicans together” because profits depended on political and community connections (p. 23). Spotlighting prominent capitalists like Charles Stillman, John J. Linn, and Mifflin Kenedy (among many others), González-Quiroga shows how strategic partnerships, friendships, and even marriages greased the wheels of capitalism on an otherwise tumultuous frontier where neither the Mexican nor the United States government exercised total hegemony.

Within the analytical framework of conflict and cooperation, the book’s sweeping narrative arc covers immigration to Texas and the revolution [End Page 124] that followed in 1836, the era of Texas independence that lasted until 1845, the U.S.-Mexican War, filibusters and revolutions in the 1850s, Mexico’s War of Reform that began in 1857, the creation of a zona libre (free trade zone) along the border in 1858, the U.S. Civil War and French Intervention of the 1860s, Kickapoo and Lipan Apache raiding in the 1870s, the clandestine activities of Juan Cortina and his followers during that same era, and the economic integration that accompanied transborder railroad construction during the Porfiriato. Notably, the author emphasizes the direct roles that Mexicans played as combatants in the U.S. Civil War and French Intervention, showing how these two major North American conflicts encouraged a sort of transnational but regional collaboration, as combatants on all sides sought to gain an upper hand without alienating potential allies. Men such as Santiago Vidaurri, Hamilton P. Bee, Myndert Mynderse Kimmey, Patricio Milmo, and José Augustín Quintero take center stage, forging temporary alliances through extralegal scheming that advanced personal and regional agendas. The result of these localized and often unofficial partnerships, González-Quiroga argues, was an environment wherein military and commercial success required people to look beyond their racial and cultural prejudices in view of achieving national and international goals. “[R]acial animosities cooled somewhat,” he writes, “as the demands of war drew diverse people together and relegated race to a secondary plane” (p. 209).

This book is a welcome addition to the U.S.-Mexico borderlands historiography. Examining the roles of everyday citizens like ranchers, freighters, herders, laborers, doctors, laypeople, and women—in addition to the politicians and soldiers who traditionally dominate these stories—González-Quiroga shows that cooperation coexisted with chaos. He thus offers compelling new ways of looking at the region that can be applied to our understanding of modern borderlands issues.

审核人：

• MiguelÁngelGonzález-Quiroga于1830年至1880年在里奥格兰德边疆的战争与和平
• 威廉·S·凯泽

1830年至1880年，里约格兰德边疆的战争与和平是一本构思周密，编写完善和研究透彻的书，它为19世纪在德克萨斯州南部和墨西哥东北部的里奥格兰德州边境地区发生的复杂事件提供了新的观点。以前有关该时间和地点的大多数奖学金都集中在多产的暴力上，这种暴力的特征是看似不断的战争，匪徒，突袭和沿着边境走私。MiguelÁngelGonzález-Quiroga辩称，“除了冲突以外，该地区还存在另一个现实，即墨西哥人，英裔美国人和其他种族群体之间的共存与合作”（第1页）。为了证明边境地区历史的这种被低估的现实，作者主要关注经济活动，但他也将政治，军事事务和社会生活编织到了叙述中。

这项跨国研究分为9个冗长的章节，每个章节都基于对墨西哥和美国档案馆的广泛研究。尽管各章按时间顺序排列，涵盖了得克萨斯州革命直到早期的波菲里亚托，但其中一个共同的主题是边疆地区经济以及分享商业成功的利益的方式促进了区域居民之间的合作，而不论其国籍，种族和宗教。作者写道：“在最大程度上比其他任何活动，合法和非法的商业活动都将英裔美国人，欧洲人和墨西哥人聚集在一起”，因为利润取决于政治和社区的联系（第23页）。冈萨雷斯·奎洛加（González-Quiroga）吸引了著名的资本家，如查尔斯·斯蒂尔曼（Charles Stillman），约翰·J·林（John J. Linn）和米夫林·肯尼迪（Mifflin Kenedy）等。

在冲突与合作的分析框架内，这本书的叙述弧线涵盖了移民到德克萨斯州和1836年之后的革命[结束第124页]，德克萨斯州独立直到1845年的时代，美墨战争，挫败者和革命在1850年代，始于1857年的墨西哥的改革战争，创造了一个透明的自由区（自由贸易区）1858年沿边界，1860年代的美国内战和法国干预，1870年代的Kickapoo和Lipan Apache袭击，同一个时期的Juan Cortina及其追随者的秘密活动以及经济一体化在Porfiriato期间伴随着跨境铁路建设。值得注意的是，作者强调了墨西哥人在美国内战和法国干预中作为战斗员的直接作用，显示了这两个北美主要冲突如何鼓励某种跨国但区域性的合作，因为各方的战斗员都在争取上风而不疏远潜在的盟友。Santiago Vidaurri，Hamilton P. Bee，Myndert Mynderse Kimmey，Patricio Milmo和JoséAugustínQuintero等人占据着中心位置，通过促进个人和地区议程的法外计划建立临时联盟。González-Quiroga认为，这些本地化且往往是非正式的伙伴关系的结果是，在军事和商业上的成功需要人们超越种族和文化偏见，以实现国家和国际目标，这是一种环境。他写道：“种族仇恨有所降温，因为战争的要求将不同的人聚集在一起，使种族沦落到了次级飞机上”（第209页）。

这本书是美墨边疆史学的一本受欢迎的书。考察牧场主，货轮，牧民，劳工，医生，外行人和妇女等日常公民的角色，以及传统上占主导地位的政治人物和士兵，冈萨雷斯-奎罗加（González-Quiroga）表明合作与混乱并存。因此，他提供了令人信服的新视角来审视该地区，可将其应用于我们对现代边疆问题的理解。