Watering the Revolution: An Environmental and Technological History of Agrarian Reform in Mexico by Mikael D. Wolfe (review)
Who controls access to water remains a deeply contentious issue across the world. From legal questions originating in the mid to late nineteenth century to the political impact of the Mexican Revolution and postrevolutionary period, Mikael D. Wolfe examines the historical context of this subject in Mexico. Wolfe focuses on how the Mexican state made sense of water rights and regulated access, particularly in the rich agricultural zone known as the Comarca Lagunera in the northern states of Durango and Coahuila. The scope and historical range is impressive. It is a narrative understood through the perspectives of engineers, bureaucratic officials, national and regional elites, community leaders, and private investors as they debated and contested technological interventions in the natural environment.