"The Limits of Liberty provides an excellent outline of the historical roots of today's US-Mexico border conflict. Anyone interested in replacing rhetoric with research would benefit from reading it."—John Dzwonczyk, Historical Geography
"Limits of Liberty is an important contribution to multiple historiographies . . . and [it] should be required reading for anyone interested in the region, the people, and their histories."—Jose Angel Hernandez, New Mexico Historical Review
"The Limits of Liberty stands as a well-researched and deeply informative study of borderlands and transcultural studies. Throughout the nine chapters, it weaves together poignant, human stories in original, compelling, and accessible ways. Students new to borderlands history as well as seasoned readers will find much to consider in this work."—Claire Wolnisty, H-Nationalism
"The Limits of Liberty makes significant historiographical interventions and is an outstanding contribution to border studies, Texas history, and the history of the American West and northern Mexico."—Mark A. Goldberg, Southwestern Historical Quarterly
"In this excellent and timely work of transnational history, James David Nichols assesses the multidirectional nature of human migration between South Texas and northeastern Mexico during the period 1821–1861, with an emphasis on independent Indians, chattel slaves, and debt peons."—William S. Kiser, Journal of Arizona History
"This is more than a timely read for scholars interested in the Mexico-U.S. border and the history of borderlands more generally. The Limits of Liberty offers a scholarly model for understanding how distinctions between nations manifested on the borderlands and simultaneously how those who occupied the border helped define these nations."—Andrew K. Frank, Journal of American History
“As James Nichols reveals in this important new book, the U.S.-Mexico border has simultaneously functioned as a space of liberation and opportunity as well as a zone of confinement and limitation. Grounded in research in archives on both sides of the border and peopled with a fascinating cast of fugitive slaves, escaped peones, and indigenous peoples, The Limits of Liberty is essential reading for all borderlands historians.”—Karl Jacoby, professor of history at Columbia University
“James Nichols shows how a dizzying array of historical actors used the early U.S.-Mexico border for their own purposes, sometimes pleasing national authorities and sometimes greatly vexing them. We are accustomed to thinking of borders as barriers, but Nichols shows how this border invited crossing and inspired dreams of hope and freedom. This deeply empathetic and creative study should be required reading for borderlands historians.”—Benjamin H. Johnson, associate professor of history at Loyola University. Chicago
“The Limits of Liberty skillfully captures a range of borderlanders along this developing and changing line of liberty; it especially excels by providing new perspectives on slaves and slavery, debt peons, vecinos, and the Lipan Apaches, using narrative accounts based on archival materials to reveal new dimensions of the U.S.-Mexico border.”—Todd W. Wahlstrom, visiting assistant professor of history in Seaver College at Pepperdine University
“Nichols offers a prismatic view of the various peoples moving through the Texas-Mexico borderlands during tumultuous points in the nineteenth century. . . . By stimulating our thinking on what liberty has meant to different people, and in what ways freedom can appear and disappear, Nichols continues the important work of delving into the long-intertwined histories of Texas, Mexico, and the still-swirling spaces and societies between.”—Lori A. Flores, associate professor of history at Stony Brook University, SUNY
