Nayan Shah is Professor and Chair of the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and the author of Contagious Divides (UC Press).

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction PART I. Migration, Capitalism, and Stranger Intimacy 1. Passion, Violence, and Asserting Honor 2. Policing Strangers and Borderlands 3. Rural Dependency and Intimate Tensions PART II. Intimacy, Law, and Legitimacy 4. Legal Borderlands of Age and Gender 5. Intimate Ties and State Legitimacy PART III. Membership and Nation-States 6. Regulating Intimacy and Immigration 7. Strangers to Citizenship Conclusion: Estrangement and Belonging Notes Select Bibliography Index

"Brilliant... [Shah's] lucid prose, vivid stories, and gripping analysis make it a great read for both academic and general audiences." -- Julia Camacho (University of Texas, El Paso) H-Net Reviews "Show how the history of even a small (in numerical terms) minority has important implications for the ways in which all Americans understand the parameters of citizenship." Southern California Quarterly "An important contribution to the forging of a more complete and inclusive history of the North American West." -- Andrea Geiger, Simon Fraser University Jrnl Of American History