Char Miller ’75
Claremont, Calif. (March 18, 2013)—Pitzer College alumnus Char Miller ’75 has authored On the Edge: Water, Immigration, and Politics in the Southwest, a collection of essays about the American Southwest.
With an environmentalist’s eye and a story-teller’s voice, Miller delves into the troubling issues that shape life in the US-Mexico border region. On the Edge investigates how people make a home in an arid landscape riven with ecological dilemmas and political challenges.
Miller came up with the idea for the book in 2007 while driving from San Antonio, TX to Southern California. He saw San Antonio and Los Angeles as two poles bracketing a land full of intriguing, telling stories about water, immigration and a dividing line between two nations. Miller wrote On the Edge in part to truly understand the world around him.
“It seemed to me that the way to get to know this place was to write about the social pressures and justice issues that exemplify the landscapes we call home,” Miller said.
Miller is director of the environmental analysis program and W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis at Pomona College. He is the author of the award-winning Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism, Deep in the Heart of San Antonio: Land and Life in South Texas and Public Lands/Public Debates: A Century of Controversy. He co-edited Between Ruin and Restoration: An Environmental History of Israel, which was also released this year. He writes a weekly column for KCET.org in Los Angeles, focusing on environmental issues confronting California and the West.
On the Edge: Water, Immigration, and Politics in the Southwest
Char Miller majored in history and political studies at Pitzer College. On the Edge was published by Trinity University Press and is available online and through bookstores.
