heard an interview with the author on marketplace radio, and then ran out and bought the book....great ride--and Wald deserves some credit for braving the wilds to chronicle these bizarre stories, and even better riff on the intricacies of popular narco Mexican tunes today...great untold story; Wald's writing is that of a real expert and lover of roots music.

"Narcorridos" contains a wealth of previously unavailable information about the living culture of the corrido, a massively popular Mexican ballad form that seems to descend from the Castilian romance of the Middle Ages, typically telling stories of the bravery of men branded justly or unjustly as outlaws, or narrating sensational events in the local or international news.

In keeping with its traditions, the corrido in recent years evolved a new sub-genre which mythologizes the drug trafficker -- most vividly, through the figure of the singer Chalino Sánchez, whose violent career and death is central to the story.

Despite the book's name, it's about the world of music, not drugs. Though the narcocorrido phenomenon is thoroughly explored, the book is more than that. Wald is an experienced journalist who knows how to write a readable story. His comprehension of the culture is solid, and his narrative is entertaining and well-structured. He did a lot of his research hitchhiking around Mexico, and his personal narrative as investigator / questioner / outsider is deftly interwoven into the history and geography of the corrido.

If there were a prize for books of popular musicology this would be a strong contender. It has to be one of the best books on music published in the U.S. in 2001.

In Narcocorridos, Elijah Wald successfuly portrays the past present and future of the corrido as we know it. The absolute beauty of this book is the narrative and brilliant context that traces this style of music from its roots to what is now the booming of el Narcocorrido. This is the first piece of literature to my knowledge, that has taken such an indepth, surgical type research that includes every aspect of the composition of a corrido, from the talented people who right it as well as the great artists who make it, and the behind the scenes footage on all of their lives that make up the dominant public of this genre of music. I highly recommend Narcocorridos, for anyone who has ever been interested in Mexican music, is doing research on the subject, or just wants to read a tremendous read.

Ruth Hubbard uses the rhetoric of exaggeration to try to convince us to abandon genetic research. But if genes didn't matter then monkeys could talk and if environment didn't matter then we wouldn't have schools. Obviously they BOTH matter.

Let us use the objective methods of science to document the specifics of what is genetically determined and what is environmentally determined.

Any serious AIDS researcher knows that without genetic research we have no chance of defeating AIDS. Obviously we need to study genetics to maintain progress against disease.

Hubbard does deserve credit for throwing some skepticism on "the next big thing" in science, genetic technology. Unfortunately, she combines her skeptical analysis with her hopelessly egalitarian political views, obscuring any positive contributions this book could have. Hubbard goes through every expected cliche - Nazi imagery (social pundits never tire of this), playing the "race card, and discouraging scientific progress as "unneccessary". Read this book only if you wish to glimpse the future of awful politically-correct rhetoric.

Dr. Hubbard gives her readers much to think about, and she backs up everything she's written. She explains how the popularly-held reductionist view of genetics does not tell the whole story. Her book explains how the public often only hears one side of the story when it comes to the potential of the latest genetic technologies.