On the Edge grew out of a lifetime spent living and traveling across the American Southwest, from San Antonio to Los Angeles. Char Miller examines this borderland region through a native's eyes and contemplates its considerable conflicts. Internal to the various US states and Mexico's northern tier, there are struggles over water, debates over undocumented immigrants, the criminalizing of the border, and the region's evolution into a no-man's land.The book investigates how we live on this contested land --how we make our place in its oft-arid terrain; an ecosystem that burns easily and floods often and defies our efforts to nestle in its foothills, canyons, and washes.Exploring the challenges in the Southwest of learning how to live within this complex natural system while grasping its historical and environmental frameworks. Understanding these framing devices is critical to reaching the political accommodations necessary to build a more generous society, a more habitable landscape, and a more just community, whatever our documented status or species.

Introduction: Center Points1. Alamo CityWhite GoldCity BrewOrganizing for WarPolitical LegendBuyer's RemorseDanger: Work AheadHoly Moses!Repairing EdenSpringtimeCentral CoreGoing for GreenEbb and FlowBack to Nature2. Rough WatersRough WatersStorm WarningIke's Wake3. Borderline AnxietiesFiery DeathsLockupHighway RobberyHomeland InsecurityWhy Friendship Park MatteredPraise SongPolitical AgencyBulldozing NatureBehind BarsWalled OffJust LitterWandering in the Wilderness4. SouthlandOn FireUp in SmokeSliding AwayShaken and StirredOn the Wild SideForget the Garden of EdenLet It BeDamaged DesertStep BackNet LossShady DealingsBreathe DeepPumped DryCourse CorrectionMud FightAfterword: Homeward BoundAcknowledgments