Cypher and Delgado Wise (development studies, Univ. Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico) both earned their PhDs in the US, carry weighty scholarly credentials, and have published numerous books and articles on various topics relating to migration and economic development. Their more recent works have centered on Mexico. This collaboration is an unapologetic critique of neoliberalism, which the authors maintain was swallowed hook, line, and sinker by US-trained policy makers, who had a total disregard for the dangers these strategies posed for Mexico. The analysis is divided into seven . . . chapters (such as export-led growth, NAFTA, and the maquiladoras), the usual suspects when discussing Mexico's relationship with the US. However, the authors expand this view to include discussion of the globalization of capital. Given that both authors are also part of the cohort of US-trained intellectuals living/working in Mexico, it is interesting that they resurrect dependency theory in their analysis. . . . The text is very readable. . . . Summing Up: Recommended.
CHOICE
The book is well written, firmly based on ample and solid empirical evidence, and supported by painstaking field research and a thorough review of the relevant literature. It is an eye opener and a must for anyone who wants to really understand contemporary Mexico's economy and society—and in fact for all those interested in the darker side of the globalization process.
Osvaldo Sunkel, University of Chile This is surely the best treatment of modern Mexican economic history and the development of an unending crisis. Mexico's close linking to the United States through NAFTA produced an acute vulnerability to the Great Crisis, and thus Mexico's current condition ought to be an acute embarrassment to the architects of neoliberal globalization.
James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin; author of The Predator State