William Hanson and the Texas-Mexico Border: Violence, Corruption, and the Making of the Gatekeeper State

An examination of the career of Texas Ranger and immigration official William Hanson illustrating the intersections of corruption, state-building, and racial violence in early twentieth century Texas. At the Texas-Mexico border in the 1910s and 1920s, William Hanson was a witness to, and an active agent of, history. As a Texas Ranger captain and then a top official in the Immigration Service, he helped shape how US policymakers understood the border, its residents, and the movement of goods and people across the international boundary. An associate of powerful politicians and oil company executives, he also used his positions to further his and his patrons' personal interests, financial and political, often through threats and extralegal methods. Hanson’s career illustrates the ways in which legal exclusion, white-supremacist violence, and official corruption overlapped and were essential building blocks of a growing state presence along the border in the early twentieth century. In this book, John Weber reveals Hanson’s cynical efforts to use state and federal power to proclaim the border region inherently dangerous and traces the origins of current nativist politics that seek to demonize the border population. In doing so, he provides insight into how a minor political appointee, motivated by his own ambitions, had lasting impacts on how the border was experienced by immigrants and seen by the nation.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Introduction Part I. Fragile Dreams of Empire Chapter 1. Revenge, Impunity, and White Supremacy Chapter 2. In the Employ of Fall Part II. Gatekeeping Chapter 3. Deportation, Inconvenient Exiles, and Postrevolutionary State-Building Chapter 4. Immigration Control and the Numbers Game Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
John Weber is an associate professor of history at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and the author of From South Texas to the Nation: The Exploitation of Mexican Labor in the Twentieth Century.

Review :
[This book] is not a typical biography...Weber historicizes Hanson’s actions as part of a much larger economic and political shift...this tale of one man’s life ill-lived should interest modern readers because of its echoes through the present. (Texas Observer) [This book] is an uncomfortable but necessary reminder that racism, violence, and corruption have a long and sordid history in this country. (CHOICE) Weber contributes to our growing but still incomplete understanding of the Texas Rangers and its breathtakingly violent history...while also writing an original and fascinating story of a man who embodied the worst impulses and excesses of the period...Accessible,well-written, well-organized, and effectively framed,...it is a terrific book and a welcome contribution to a subject painfully relevant in 2024. (The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era)