What People are Saying
“Honored to have my story included in R.V. Gundur’s Trying to Make It. This book truly dives deep into the realities of the drug trade, showing the human side of a world many only see in headlines. R.V. did a fantastic job capturing the complexity and nuances of the people involved. If you’re looking for an insightful and compelling read on this topic, I highly recommend it.”
Margarito Flores, Jr, former Head of Logistics, the Flores DTO and instructor.
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“[R.V. Gundur] captured our story in such a compelling way and we are honored to be part of this amazing book.”
Valerie “Olivia” Flores, co-author of Cartel Wives
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“An excellent piece of scholarship.”
James Windle, University College Cork, author of Suppressing Illicit Opium Production: Successful Intervention in Asia and the Middle East
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“[Gundur’s] 10 years of work is a vivid tableau of life in places like Juárez, Mexico, a needful corrective to the cinematic caricatures that present only the squalor of criminal enterprises.”
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“Gundur’s probe of systems of underground money and those who participate in them lends many eye-opening realizations to the story that will engross law enforcement readers, social issues students interested in gang, criminal, and drug operations, and history readers who look for social inspections that delve deeper into the subject than simply documenting circumstances and facts.”
Diane Donovan for Midwest Book Review
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“Gundur speaks in simple words and inclusive language about complex issues related to drug trafficking, street/prison gangs, drug trafficking organizations, corruption, politics, and violence. He paints a fascinating story about the mechanisms of drug trafficking and perfectly operates with data and literature […] a pivotal monograph.”
Piotr Chomczyński for Qualitative Social Review
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“A free-flowing, ultimately highly illuminating odyssey encompassing three fascinating metropolitan regions, all highly salient to the American drug trade: Ciudad Juárez, Mexico /El Paso, Texas (the so-called Paso del Norte borderlands); Phoenix; and Chicago […] an important, deftly penned book.”
Russell Crandall for Rutgers Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books
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“An untainted image of the situation surrounding the drug trade in the USA […] Gundur systematically tackles and analyses the different angles and stances taken by American political figures and the general public on the issue of the drug trade.”
Readers’ Favorite, 5-star review
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“An outstanding ethnographic study that […] is presented in contrast to common political tropes around drug cartels that control the trade from the top down and have far-reaching tentacles to American citizens at the street level and cause extreme violence to spill across the border through territorial turf wars.”
Mark Berry for the Journal of Illicit Economies and Development
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“The many valuable insights the book offers are not only relevant for academics; they are as precious for politicians, policymakers, and lay citizens because, as Gundur explains, to constructively address the issue of drug trafficking—which takes thousands of lives of people cultivating, transporting, selling, and consuming drugs—the need is to understand the phenomenon and see the people involved in it in their full humanity, not to demonize its actors.”
David R Goyes for Theoretical Criminology
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“Trying to Make It offers an up-to-date, honest, and straightforward view of the world from the perspective of real people involved in the narcotics trade. A beautifully written work.”
Scott Decker, Arizona State University, author of On Gangs
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“Through extraordinary on-the-ground research, R. V. Gundur depicts the tragic existence of those who come from the margins of society to be involved in the drug trade. Composed of eighteen stories of broken promises, Trying to Make It brings humanity into the discussion.”
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, George Mason University, author of Los Zetas Inc.
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“A riveting account of the American drug trade. Trying to Make It shows how the people, places, and politics of the drug trade’s engine—the street and prison gangs and cartels—are far more dynamic, opportunistic, and tenuous than we might think.”
David C. Pyrooz, University of Colorado Boulder, author of Competing for Control
Previews, Podcasts, and Media
Read Chapter12: “Adelita and Calista“
Read: Five Questions with R.V. Gundur at ANZSOC’s PacifiCrim
Listen: 1869, Ep. 120 [Apple] | [Spotify] | [Soundcloud] | [Read: Transcript]
Listen: The CrimAcademy, Ep. 59 [Apple] | [Spotify] | [Podbean] | [Read: Transcript]
Watch: OC24 2022, Author meets Critics (Youtube)
Watch: Mark Halsey interviews R.V. Gundur for Fearless Minds