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9781119100171

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`What an exciting and devastating book! Philosophically as well as aesthetically it blends the material world of road-building into the Amazon with the myth of stately prowess, especially the state's heroic tropes of opening up the frontier. Showing how such a road creates the state, rather than the other way around, the author also demolishes the myth of geographical determinism and does so in a calm, elegant, and lucid prose that upturns our basic concepts. By building his own road, Simon Uribe brings nature and the state into a dazzling new constellation.' Michael Taussig, Class of 1933 Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York `A wonderful historical treat in the emerging field of infrastructure studies, Frontier Road is a rich and fascinating account of the relation between state and frontier in the Putumayo region of Colombia. The protagonist is the road - a site of hope, frustration, violence and fear, and a space where histories of the future are tracked from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.' Penny Harvey, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester, Manchester `Simon Uribe takes us on an exhilarating journey to reveal how nearly two centuries of frustrated efforts to build a road through the Putumayo exposes the fantasies of state-building and uncertainty of development. With this beautifully written ethnography, Uribe introduces us to a cast of actors, from enigmatic missionaries, wizened truck drivers, and 'never present' guerrilla for whom the road is material infrastructure and symbol of state power. Frontier Road is a remarkable achievement that itself exists at the intellectual frontier of anthropology, geography and history.' Gareth Jones, Professor of Urban Geography, London School of Economics, London

`What an exciting and devastating book! Philosophically as well as aesthetically it blends the material world of road-building into the Amazon with the myth of stately prowess, especially the state's heroic tropes of opening up the frontier. Showing how such a road creates the state, rather than the other way around, the author also demolishes the myth of geographical determinism and does so in a calm, elegant, and lucid prose that upturns our basic concepts. By building his own road, Simon Uribe brings nature and the state into a dazzling new constellation.'Michael Taussig, Class of 1933 Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York`A wonderful historical treat in the emerging field of infrastructure studies, Frontier Road is a rich and fascinating account of the relation between state and frontier in the Putumayo region of Colombia. The protagonist is the road - a site of hope, frustration, violence and fear, and a space where histories of the future are tracked from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.'Penny Harvey, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester, Manchester`Simon Uribe takes us on an exhilarating journey to reveal how nearly two centuries of frustrated efforts to build a road through the Putumayo exposes the fantasies of state-building and uncertainty of development. With this beautifully written ethnography, Uribe introduces us to a cast of actors, from enigmatic missionaries, wizened truck drivers, and 'never present' guerrilla for whom the road is material infrastructure and symbol of state power. Frontier Road is a remarkable achievement that itself exists at the intellectual frontier of anthropology, geography and history.'Gareth Jones, Professor of Urban Geography, London School of Economics, London

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Simón Uribe is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Regional Studies, University of Antioquia.

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