Intimate Enemies: Landowners, Power, and Violence in Chiapas
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"One of the most interesting, original, and important books about Chiapas (and, I think, about rural Latin America) that has been published in the past 20 years."
Hispanic American Historical Review
"Lyrically written, theoretically rich, and very interesting...It tells a story that has not been told before, and challenges some deeply held assumptions about the history of land in Chiapas. For those who study Chiapas, it will immediately become an indispensible text. For those who study land, peasants, and agriculture-anywhere-this book makes it clear that the other side of the story is part of the story."
Perspectives on Politics
"A fascinating interdisciplinary book that will be valuable to social scientists interested in questions of land reform, landed production, state-society relations, and indigenous politics. . . . Bobrow-Strain has written a nuanced thick description deeply informed by the literature on landed production and hegemony. I recommend this book highly."
Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
"One of the best geographic ethnographies of the last decade"
Professional Geographer
"[T]his is an important book...Bobrow-Strain is to be commended for his facility in using oral and archival sources to provide what had been one of the missing pieces in the Chiapas puzzle."
American Historical Review
"A much-needed contribution to the anthropological literature of Mexico and Latin America as well as to the discipline more generally... More generally, Intimate Enemies is a highly recommended corrective to anthropology's contemporary lack of attention to elites"
American Ethnologist
"A keen observer of social dynamics [Bobrow-Strain] not only analyzes the power relations embedded for example in the company store-debt-liquor system, or the shifting role of the state as mediator of landowner-peasant conflict; he pulls the reader into the scene through vivid vignettes."
Journal of Latin American Studies
"[This] is an important book for historians, anthropologists, and students of peasants from all disciplines....Through a combination of detailed historical research, sensitive ethnographic method, rigorous analysis, and elegant prose Bobrow-Strain has...created an invaluable contribution to the study of agrarian society and rural politics in modern Mexico."
Journal of Peasant Studies
