Fencing in Democracy

“Miguel Díaz-Barriga and Margaret E. Dorsey's argument that the role of the state in fomenting violence remains unrecognized and depoliticized is powerful and utterly convincing. With its superior scholarship and compelling ethnographic material, Fencing in Democracy will garner interest from scholars and the public alike.” — Patricia Zavella, author of I’m Neither Here nor There: Mexicans’ Quotidian Struggles with Migration and Poverty

“Miguel Díaz-Barriga and Margaret E. Dorsey deliver a groundbreaking exposé of the distorted logics, policies, and politics that underpin the construction of border walls. Focusing on the US-Mexico border wall, Fencing in Democracy is a deeply thoughtful and thoroughly researched investigation that reveals the backstories behind ever-expanding processes of securitization and militarization, and the death and destruction that result. Not for the fainthearted, this book is for concerned citizens of the world looking to comprehend what the popular media and powerful politicians distort and a wake-up call about what gets destroyed in the name of safety.” — Alisse Waterston, author of My Father’s Wars: Migration, Memory, and the Violence of a Century

“This work is provocative.... Given the global rise of authoritarian rule coupled with the imposition of walls of exclusion, Fencing in Democracy will be of interest globally to general publics and students across the social sciences.” — Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez, Journal of Anthropological Research

“[Fencing in Democracy] is an extremely valuable study of the local dynamics and resistance to the federal and state multilayered border enforcement machine and propaganda.” — Timothy Dunn, Anthropos