Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2014
256 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
Armed authorities watch from a military-grade surveillance tower as lines of people stream toward the security checkpoint, tickets in hand, anxious and excited to get through the gate. Few seem to notice or care that the US Border Patrol is monitoring the Super Bowl, as they have for years, one of the many ways that forces created to police the borders are now being used, in an increasingly militarized fashion, to survey and monitor the whole of American society.
In fast-paced prose, Todd Miller sounds an alarm as he chronicles the changing landscape. Traveling the country - and beyond - to speak with the people most involved with and impacted by the Border Patrol, he combines these first-hand encounters with careful research to expose a vast and booming industry for high-end technology, weapons, surveillance, and prisons. While politicians and corporations reap substantial profits, the experiences of millions of men, women, and children point to staggering humanitarian consequences. Border Patrol Nation shows us in stark relief how the entire country has become a militarized border zone, with consequences that affect us all.
"Starred Review. In addition to readers interested in immigration issues, those concerned about the NSA's privacy violations will likely be even more shocked by the actions of Homeland Security." - Publishers Weekly
"What Jeremy Scahill was to Blackwater, Todd Miller is to the U.S. Border Patrol!" - Tom Miller, author of On the Border: Portraits of America's Southwestern Frontier
"If you want to learn about the Border Patrol's world, you will find this book informative and startling. I'm not sure the Border Patrol will like all that he has to say. But his is a moral work that wrestles with a huge story. Powerful." - Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil's Highway: A True Story, among other books
This information about Border Patrol Nation was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Todd Miller has worked on US border issues for over fifteen years. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Mother Jones>, the Nation, TomDispatch, the Huffington Post, Al-Jazeera English, Common Dreams, and many others.
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