On the Borders of Love and Power

With On the Borders of Love and Power, a star-studded cast of scholars brings to life a new history of the family in the American Southwest. Embracing the cultural crossroads that made the region distinctive--particularly the collision of Anglo-American, Hispanic, and Native American cultural and political structures--the authors explore relationships between family life and larger power structures, documenting the wide range of ways family relations were constructed and experienced. Ultimately, the authors demonstrate that when the various peoples of the Southwest met, conflicts and negotiations over family life figured prominently in relation to larger struggles for conquest and control, as well as for identity, dignity, autonomy, belonging, and survival. These essays attest that American families have been characterized by greater diversity and have been interconnected in more complicated ways than longstanding idealizations of "the traditional family" have allowed, offering insights into the relationships between love and power in our own time.

David Wallace Adams is Professor of History at Cleveland State University and author of Education for Extinction. Crista DeLuzio is Associate Professor of History at Southern Methodist University and author of Female Adolescence in American Scientific Thought.