Today all would agree that Mexico and the United States have never been closer--that the fates of the two republics are intertwined. Mexico has become an intimate part of life in almost every community in the United States, through immigration, imported produce, business ties, or illegal drugs. It is less a neighbor than a sibling; no matter what our differences, it is intricately a part of our existence.
In the fully updated second edition of
Mexico: What Everyone Needs to Know(R), Roderic Ai Camp gives readers the most essential information about our sister republic to the south. Camp organizes chapters around major themes--security and violence, economic development, foreign relations, the colonial heritage, and more. He asks questions that take us beyond the headlines: Why does Mexico have so much drug violence? What was the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement? How democratic is Mexico? Who were Benito Juarez and Pancho Villa? What is the PRI (the Institutional Revolutionary Party)? The answers are sometimes surprising. Despite ratification of NAFTA, for example, Mexico has fallen behind Brazil and Chile in economic growth and rates of poverty. Camp explains that lack of labor flexibility, along with low levels of transparency and high levels of corruption, make Mexico less competitive than some other Latin American countries. The drug trade, of course, enhances corruption and feeds on poverty; approximately 450,000 Mexicans now work in this sector.
Brisk, clear, and informed,
Mexico: What Everyone Needs To Know(R) offers a valuable primer for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of our neighbor to the South.
Links to video interviews with prominent Mexicans appear throughout the text. The videos can be accessed at through The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History at http: //latinamericanhistory.oxfordre.com/page/videos/
Kerry Back is the J. Howard Creekmore Professor of Finance at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business and a Professor of Economics in the Rice University School of Social Sciences. He previously served on the faculties of Northwestern University, Indiana University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Texas A&M University. At Washington University in St. Louis, he served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the Olin School of Business and was named a University Distinguished Faculty Member. He received faculty research awards at Texas A&M and at Rice University. Currently, he teaches introductory and advanced asset pricing theory to PhD students in the Jones School and in the Department of Economics. His research interests are in the areas of investments and market design, and he has served as an editor of the Review of Financial Studies, a co-editor of Finance & Stochastics, and an associate editor of the Journal of Finance and other journals.
