Michael K Be
Biographic Data
| ID | 1361197 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael K Be |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael K |
| FAMILY NAME | Be |
| SIGNATURE | BE M K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5814-6342 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Paved Over
The mid-twentieth-century history of urban modernization and mobility in Mexico City was intertwined with political violence. It ranged from the forceful clearing of a working-class community to make way for a stadium parking lot to the “slow violence” of denying people access to trolleys to transport their goods or weaponizing transit policy to reward friends and punish rivals. This article shows how these activities reflected the increasingly v…
Mexican Icarus
Construyendo la carretera Coatzacoalcos-Minatitlán y otros caminos en el sur de Veracruz, 1933-1942
La carretera Coatzacoalcos-Minatitlán fue una vía importante en el proyecto para mejorar la movilidad y el acceso al transporte regional motorizado en la zona sur del estado de Veracruz, y fue un ejemplo de la formación de una organización local, y parcialmente independiente del resto de la burocracia estatal-federal, para construir obras en la región: el Comité Central Pro-Carretera de Coatzacoalcos (CCPCC). Este grupo tomó un papel central en l…
The Panama Railroad by Peter Pyne
Reviewed by: The Panama Railroad by Peter Pyne Michael K. Bess (bio) The Panama Railroad By Peter Pyne. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2021. Pp. 395. Peter Pyne's The Panama Railroad is a cogent, well-researched work about the challenges of building modern infrastructures against hostile environments in the mid-nineteenth century. He also shows that his book fills a void, noting the absence of recent studies on the history of the Panama r…
T raffic P roblems
This article examines how people in Mexico's Federal District (Distrito Federal) contested transit policies and responded to the introduction of new technical infrastructures, like the electrified tram network. District officials published transit guidelines that reflected elite preoccupation with order, but their heavy-handed policies faced resistance from poor, working-class, and middle-class residents. This defiance took different forms: nonco…
The U.S.‐Mexico Transborder Region
There and Back
"There and Back: Twelve of the Great Routes of Human History." History: Reviews of New Books, 47(2), pp. 43–44
La France vert clair
La France vert clair est le récit captivant de la constitution en France dès les années 60 d’une société vert clair, alliant à la fois modernité technologique et considérations environnementales. La teinte vert clair évoque non seulement la modération, les compromis et les demi-mesures, mais aussi l’ambiguïté profonde qui a caractérisé la réception des idées écologiques par les citoyens français. En parallèle au développement effréné des Trente G…
The Pursuit of Ruins
At the intersection of mobility, transport, and the drug trade
Scholarship on the drug trade shares points of convergence with work on mobilities studies and transport history, particularly in the study of the production, commerce, and consumption of licit and illicit drugs in spatial and geographical context. The visibility of the connections between drugs studies and mobility and transport history has become more evident very recently, in part, because of the novelty of both areas of study. The authors ide…
Revolutionary Paths
Through an examination of the political and legal debates over the role of road building in Mexico between 1920 and 1938, this essay shows how these debates became a symbol of nationalist “progress” after the military phase of Revolution. During this time, the Mexican state confronted foreign commercial interests as federal, state, and local officials launched construction efforts for new motorways. Legal and bureaucratic reforms emphasized natio…
Neither motorists nor pedestrians obey the rules’
In the first half of the twentieth century, Mexican authorities implemented transit laws to regulate motor traffic and address concerns about road safety. The northern city of Monterrey, Nuevo León serves as a case study for this process. Monterrey’s location at the junction of two major national highways, as well as its proximity to the United States, made it an important site for cross-border trade and tourism. Local officials in Monterrey deve…
Routes of Conflict
This essay explores the social, political, and economic impact of road building in Mexico during the Second World War and early Cold War years. It examines the evolution of federal road-building policy alongside regional case studies of construction efforts in the states of Veracruz and Nuevo León to highlight how local politics were influenced by broader transnational processes related to the U.S.—Mexico bilateral relationship. The author argues…
Environmental History Writing in Southern Europe
Routes of Conflict
This essay explores the social, political, and economic impact of road building in Mexico during the Second World War and early Cold War years. It examines the evolution of federal road-building policy alongside regional case studies of construction efforts in the states of Veracruz and Nuevo León to highlight how local politics were influenced by broader transnational processes related to the U.S.—Mexico bilateral relationship. The author argues…
T raffic P roblems
This article examines how people in Mexico's Federal District (Distrito Federal) contested transit policies and responded to the introduction of new technical infrastructures, like the electrified tram network. District officials published transit guidelines that reflected elite preoccupation with order, but their heavy-handed policies faced resistance from poor, working-class, and middle-class residents. This defiance took different forms: nonco…
At the intersection of mobility, transport, and the drug trade
Scholarship on the drug trade shares points of convergence with work on mobilities studies and transport history, particularly in the study of the production, commerce, and consumption of licit and illicit drugs in spatial and geographical context. The visibility of the connections between drugs studies and mobility and transport history has become more evident very recently, in part, because of the novelty of both areas of study. The authors ide…
Environmental History Writing in Southern Europe
Revolutionary Paths
Through an examination of the political and legal debates over the role of road building in Mexico between 1920 and 1938, this essay shows how these debates became a symbol of nationalist “progress” after the military phase of Revolution. During this time, the Mexican state confronted foreign commercial interests as federal, state, and local officials launched construction efforts for new motorways. Legal and bureaucratic reforms emphasized natio…
Environmental History Writing in Southern Europe
Routes of Conflict
This essay explores the social, political, and economic impact of road building in Mexico during the Second World War and early Cold War years. It examines the evolution of federal road-building policy alongside regional case studies of construction efforts in the states of Veracruz and Nuevo León to highlight how local politics were influenced by broader transnational processes related to the U.S.—Mexico bilateral relationship. The author argues…
Revolutionary Paths
Through an examination of the political and legal debates over the role of road building in Mexico between 1920 and 1938, this essay shows how these debates became a symbol of nationalist “progress” after the military phase of Revolution. During this time, the Mexican state confronted foreign commercial interests as federal, state, and local officials launched construction efforts for new motorways. Legal and bureaucratic reforms emphasized natio…
Neither motorists nor pedestrians obey the rules’
In the first half of the twentieth century, Mexican authorities implemented transit laws to regulate motor traffic and address concerns about road safety. The northern city of Monterrey, Nuevo León serves as a case study for this process. Monterrey’s location at the junction of two major national highways, as well as its proximity to the United States, made it an important site for cross-border trade and tourism. Local officials in Monterrey deve…
La France vert clair
La France vert clair est le récit captivant de la constitution en France dès les années 60 d’une société vert clair, alliant à la fois modernité technologique et considérations environnementales. La teinte vert clair évoque non seulement la modération, les compromis et les demi-mesures, mais aussi l’ambiguïté profonde qui a caractérisé la réception des idées écologiques par les citoyens français. En parallèle au développement effréné des Trente G…
The Pursuit of Ruins
At the intersection of mobility, transport, and the drug trade
Scholarship on the drug trade shares points of convergence with work on mobilities studies and transport history, particularly in the study of the production, commerce, and consumption of licit and illicit drugs in spatial and geographical context. The visibility of the connections between drugs studies and mobility and transport history has become more evident very recently, in part, because of the novelty of both areas of study. The authors ide…
The U.S.‐Mexico Transborder Region
There and Back
"There and Back: Twelve of the Great Routes of Human History." History: Reviews of New Books, 47(2), pp. 43–44
T raffic P roblems
This article examines how people in Mexico's Federal District (Distrito Federal) contested transit policies and responded to the introduction of new technical infrastructures, like the electrified tram network. District officials published transit guidelines that reflected elite preoccupation with order, but their heavy-handed policies faced resistance from poor, working-class, and middle-class residents. This defiance took different forms: nonco…
The Panama Railroad by Peter Pyne
Reviewed by: The Panama Railroad by Peter Pyne Michael K. Bess (bio) The Panama Railroad By Peter Pyne. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2021. Pp. 395. Peter Pyne's The Panama Railroad is a cogent, well-researched work about the challenges of building modern infrastructures against hostile environments in the mid-nineteenth century. He also shows that his book fills a void, noting the absence of recent studies on the history of the Panama r…
Mexican Icarus
Construyendo la carretera Coatzacoalcos-Minatitlán y otros caminos en el sur de Veracruz, 1933-1942
La carretera Coatzacoalcos-Minatitlán fue una vía importante en el proyecto para mejorar la movilidad y el acceso al transporte regional motorizado en la zona sur del estado de Veracruz, y fue un ejemplo de la formación de una organización local, y parcialmente independiente del resto de la burocracia estatal-federal, para construir obras en la región: el Comité Central Pro-Carretera de Coatzacoalcos (CCPCC). Este grupo tomó un papel central en l…
Paved Over
The mid-twentieth-century history of urban modernization and mobility in Mexico City was intertwined with political violence. It ranged from the forceful clearing of a working-class community to make way for a stadium parking lot to the “slow violence” of denying people access to trolleys to transport their goods or weaponizing transit policy to reward friends and punish rivals. This article shows how these activities reflected the increasingly v…
Political science (8 works) · Economics (6 works) · Engineering (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Art (5 works) · History (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Economy (4 works) · Humanities (4 works) · Law (4 works)