The Ecology of Oil
Environment, Labor, and the Mexican Revolution, 1900–1938

An exploration of the social and environmental consequences of oil extraction in the tropical rainforest.

Myrna I. Santiago (Author)

9780521863247, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 August 2006

426 pages, 12 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.719 kg

"...the author had produced an imaginative and well researched account of oil development in the Mexican Huasteca." -Peter Linder, The Americas

An exploration of the social and environmental consequences of oil extraction in the tropical rainforest. Using northern Veracruz as a case study, the author argues that oil production generated major historical and environmental transformations in land tenure systems and uses, and social organisation. Such changes, furthermore, entailed effects, including the marginalisation of indigenes, environmental destruction, and tense labour relations. In the context of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920), however, the results of oil development did not go unchallenged. Mexican oil workers responded to their experience by forging a politicised culture and a radical left militancy that turned 'oil country' into one of the most significant sites of class conflict in revolutionary Mexico. Ultimately, the book argues, Mexican oil workers deserve their share of credit for the 1938 decree nationalising the foreign oil industry - heretofore reserved for President Lazaro Cardenas - and thus changing the course of Mexican history.

List of illustrations, figures, and appendices
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. The Huasteca Before Oil: 1. 'Paradise' and 'progress': the Huasteca in the 19th century
Part II. The Ecology of Oil: 2. Controlling the tropical forest: the shift in land tenure systems
3. The anatomy of progress: changing land use patterns
4. 'Masters of men, masters of nature': social change in the Huasteca
Part III. Challenging the Ecology of Oil: 5. 'Rude in manner': the Mexican oil workers, 1905–1921
6. Revolutionaries, conservation, and wasteland
7. The revolution from below: the oil unions, 1924–1938
Conclusion
Epilogue
Appendices
A note on the sources
Archives consulted
Selected bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], General & world history [HBG]