Book Description
On March 9, 1916, a band of Mexican marauders led by Pancho Villa crossed the border and raided the tiny town of Columbus, New Mexico. A military expedition was hastily organized to go into Mexico and capture Villa, suspects were rounded up, trials were held, and a virulent backlash against persons of Mexican origin erupted on the local and national scenes. General John Black Jack Pershing, once a genuine fan of Villas, accompanied by a young George Patton, was told to assemble a group of soldiers, head into Mexico, and get Villadead or alive. The last hurrah for the U.S. Cavalry, the expedition would be the first time armored tanks, airplanes, and trucks were employed against an enemy. But as they descended into the nightmare of Mexico, the American troops were followed by spies and picked off by snipers, fought violent battles, and suffered in the scorching deserts and snowy mountains. Some would never return home alive. A brutal tale of revenge and violence, Eileen Welsomes richly detailed account is equal parts Sam Peckinpah, Cormac McCarthy, and Stephen Ambrose.
Customer Reviews:
Pancho Villa and Black Jack Pershing.......2007-07-14
As one who fell in love with Mexico in 1964, I continue to read most of what comes out in print with relation to that country. This book has information about Pershing that I knew nothing about, and reveals much of a personal nature about him and about Francisco Villa.
The struggles of the U. S. soldiers as they search for the elusive Villa
make an interesting story-- one that got lost because the incursion into Mexico was followed so quickly by World War I. I wonder, for example, how many of the soldiers who were in Mexico went on to the European war.
I had the great good fortune to hear a lecture by one of Villa's secretaries.
I am still in love with Mexico after all these years!
Norma Williamson
Excellent account of the events in Mexico before WWI.......2007-06-12
The author has done her homework with this fine piece of history. I have read much on this subject and was hoping to find out more details about the Punitive Expedition mounted by America to track down Pancho Villa and his bandit army. She paints Villa and the other leaders of the 'Revolution' as most of them were: brutal killers seeking wealth and power and a few betterment of the people of Mexico. Lots of details about the Villiast raid on Columbus, NM, the numerous skirmishes between US troops and various factions of Mexican forces of all sorts.
Plenty of drama and some good information about Villa's background, experiences during the revolution as well as those of Obregon, Madero, Zapata and many others.
Worth reading as her style is easy to follow and sometimes humerous and insightful.
I give it thumbs up. Enjoy as it might lead the reader to seek more information about this fascinating period of US/Mexican history.
The Columbus Raid and its aftermath........2007-06-04
A former guerrilla ally of the United States turns his vengence on the U.S. A President who wanted to tend to the domestic ills of the United States is drawn into a foreign conflict. An intervention is attempted which results in native aggravation at the United States. History repeats itself. The time is 1916 and the terrorist act is at Columbus, New Mexico-a sleepy border town. Pancho Villa kills a lot of innocent men. Americans are now his enemy. The Americans intervene in Mexico and try to track him down. They nearly suceed. Time give Villa the punishment he deserves.
This is an interesting book about earlier terrorism. Not much is written about the Columbus raid. Welsome does a good job of describing the killings of Pancho Villa and his Division of the North in the 1916-17 period. This should be read in light of the current war on terror.
a little too much fluff.......2007-06-03
I enjoyed the book, but I thought it could have been shortened considerably if Welsome would have left out the numerous paragraphs about what someone was thinking or might have thought as they rode a horse through the mountains. It had a little too much fluff for me and for a book that has a title that indicates it is about 2 military leaders I was left with the feeling it was a so-so attempt to create a romanticized old west tale. I would have liked to seen more actual military history instead of the speculation fluff that fills so many pages. The book is nice but if you want a military history book, this isn't it.
Good book about Villas' Columbus Raid.......2007-03-19
The book is excellent from a historical perspective. Ms. Welsome thoroughly researched the topic and presented her findings in a very readable manner. The only negative is that it wasn't told as exciting as some other period non-fiction I've read. But this is really nitpicking though, as I thought it was a fine book all things considered.
Book Description
This acclaimed reinterpretation of the Mexican Revolution, based on new evidence obtained in Mexican and American archives and on the historical literature of recent years, is available here in the tenth anniversary edition, complete with a new Preface by the author.
Customer Reviews:
good overview but scope too narrow.......2006-05-08
Professor Hart's book was written in 1989, which isn't that long ago, but the book is showing its age in that it only looks at political actors and does not spend much time analyzing the underlying economic background to the revolution.
He does have an intriguing chapter which shows the parallel revolutionary activity around the turn of the 20th century in Iran, China and Russia, as well as Mexico. Essentially, all these countries suffered from foreign control over capital availablity and resource extraction, facilitated by a complicit native oligarchy who maintained power through the rents obtained from selling off the resources to the highest bidders. That rent was then used to finance opulence instead of on the development of import substitution industries and agricultural and manufacturing sectors which would have provided jobs to the large underclasses.
Coupled with a lack of democratic safeguards by which to manifest their discontent, the bourgeois classes united with the working classes to foment revolutionary violence in all these countries.
Unfortunately, Hart spends too much time scapegoating US and European capitalists for making such inroads into Mexico's economy, instead of looking at how and why they were able to do so without much difficulty. Hart seems to follow the dependency theorist school, in which the late-industrializing countries are at the mercy of those which developed first, i.e. Britain, USA and France. This is not an incorrect assessment, but as more current research has shown in the work of such people as Doug North and Stephen Haber, this is not the whole story.
Hart also updated this work in 2002 with a new volume entitled "Empire and Revolution," which generally goes over the same territory, but looks even deeper at the damned gringos who were behind all of Mexico's misery. While I am not in complete disagreement with such an assessment, it is an oversimplification of Mexico's revolution and it is why I think that Hart's books on the subject are not aging well.
Book Description
Starting with twenty-eight followers, Francisco Pancho Villa rose out of banditry to become a dynamic strategist who mastered the tactical use of a diverse array of weapons, including modern railroads and cavalry, to contest control of Mexico. In his early days as a brigand, the peasantry idolized him because he often gave them the largesse of his raids on the wealthy haciendas. His military career began in 1910 during the Mexican Revolution, and by the time of his defeat at the Battle of Celaya in 1915 he commanded 15,000 horsemen. Villa could be a generous patron to his loyal followers but a terrifying enemy. He believed that those whom he defeated earned the “privilege†of being executed by his own hand. During the bloodiest months of the Mexican Revolution, he even contended for control of the nation. He could not be intimidated by anyone, including the U.S. Army’s Punitive Expedition led by Gen. John J. Pershing, who was sent to capture Villa after his raids into New Mexico during 1916. He died as he lived, violently, the victim of an assassination squad in 1923. Robert Scheina analyzes this complex man and provides a solid overview of Mexico’s political history against the fabric of social and cultural turmoil.
Customer Reviews:
Villa: Revolutionary Leader.......2005-10-17
"Villa: Soldier of the Mexican Revolution" provides a balanced, in-depth look at a fascinating revolutionary combat leader. The story of Pancho Villa, with his personal, political and military strengths and weaknesses is expertly woven into the political and military tapestry of revolutionary Mexico of the first two decades of the 20th Century. Scheina's encyclopedic understanding of Latin American political and military affairs shines through in this clear and concise book. Noteworthy is Scheina's handling of the vast parade of dictators, generals, moderates, revolutionaries and revolutionary military leaders. Scheina's clear presentation is the best I have seen. The author does the reader another favor; for ease of reference, all geo-locations are made in reference to Mexico City and denominated in linear miles.
Pancho Villa was a product of his times, a man who showed nothing but strength to his followers, confederated leaders and his enemies. Villa also relied on natural cunning and inherent intelligence. Pancho Villa was a strong, charismatic leader who gained tough, battle-ready horsemen through his ability to lead by example, provide for his followers, and ruthlessly dispatch enemies. While able to attract good quality, mounted infantry/cavalry during times of success, these irregulars tended to dissappear after a string of military reverses. Like so many irregular forces, they were strongest after a few victories. For much of the revolution, Villa also lacked trained infantry. What set Villa's irregulars apart from others was their ability to dismount and engage in vicious city-fighting for days on end.
Villa lived and fought during a period of great technological change. He used his mounted infantry for tactical attack and railroad-borne horsemen, artillery and machine guns for strategic movement. The changes of this era were also reflected in Villa's horsemen's frequent encounters with entrenched infantry which were protected by machine guns and barbed wire. Often, the elan of Villa's horse was able to carry the day. In the last days of horse cavalry, Villa's communications included the telephone and his reconnaissance motor cars and attempts with early aircraft.
At his best, Villa was a brilliant leader and tactician. He worked with the forces available to him and employed new weapons when made available. In weaker moments, Villa fell back on the tried and true tactics of his early victories, launching wasteful frontal cavalry charges against well-defended infantry. Charisma was not always enough. Late in his career, Villa was simply unable to adjust while under the pressure of numerous, trained and motivated enemy armies. "Soldier of the Revolution" provides an excellent glimpse into Mexico's revolution, Villa's response and the importance of the charismatic "strong-man" in Latin American politics. Scheina also provides the Mexican view of Pershing's campaign against Pancho Villa. A campaign of relevance to America's performance in World War I.
Book Description
The decade 1910Â-1920 was the bloodiest in the controversial history of one of the most famous law enforcement agencies in the world—the Texas Rangers. Much of the bloodshed was along the thousand-mile Texas/Mexico border because these were the years of the Mexican Revolution.
Charles Harris III and Louis Sadler shed new light on this turbulent period by uncovering the clandestine role of Mexican President Venustiano Carranza in the border violence. They document two virtually unknown invasions of Texas by Mexican Army troops acting under Carranza's orders. Harris and Sadler suggest the notorious "Plan de San Diego," usually portrayed by historians as a plot hatched in South Texas, was actually spawned in Mexico by Carranza. This irredentist conspiracy, which called for the execution of all Anglo males sixteen and older and the establishment of a Hispanic republic, was designed to cause a race war between Hispanics and Anglos. One of CarranzaÂ's goals was to end the support being given by border residents to his rival Pancho Villa.
The "Plan de San Diego" caused the governor of Texas to order the Texas Rangers to wipe out the insurgency along the border. This resulted in an estimated 300 Hispanics being killed by the Rangers and others without benefit of judge and jury.
The Texas Rangers and the Mexican Revolution is the first Ranger history to utilize Mexican government archives and the voluminous declassified FBI records on the Mexican Revolution.
"There is no other book that focuses on the Texas Rangers in the period 1910-1920. This will be the standard book on the Rangers for this period and probably the most thoroughly researched book on the Rangers in any period."--Alwyn Barr, Professor of History, Texas Tech University
"Harris and Sadler provide the first definitive evaluation of the Texas Rangers and their activities during the first and most violent decade of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920. This is a really outstanding, important work"--William H. Beezley, Professor of Latin American History, University of Arizona
The authors document the secret role of the Mexican president in the insurgency against Anglos during the Mexican Revolution and the Texas Rangers' role in ending the uprising.
Customer Reviews:
The Texas Rangers and the Mexican Revolution: The Bloodiest Decade, 1910-1920.......2007-02-12
Written by authors trying to prove a point. Once you get by their prejudice it is a good historical read of the times, which are still relevant today
The Bloodiest Decade Revisted.......2006-12-14
The Mexican Revolution was at its most bloody point during this decade and spilled over to the United States on some occasions. This book analyzes the role of the Texas Rangers, Untied States Military and other groups during the time of the revolution. Mostly it is a policing action to keep violence from spilling over into El Paso but occasionally they are attacking cattle rustlers who cross the border including Pancho Villa. The Texas Rangers were essential in defending the frontier during this timer period and performed many valuable services. While there are several books that exist on the Texas Rangers this is the only one that I have run across that really explains their role within Texas as a whole. Both authors do an excellent job of bringing their knowledge about the revolution and weaving it within the context of Texas History. Their discussion of the Plan de San Diego which was an attempted revolt by Mexicans across the border was truly terrifying and they do an excellent job of giving the governments response to it. This book is excellent for anyone who wants a knowledge about how state forces responded to a crisis during the early 1900's. For those who love the Texas Rangers this is a must have to their library.
Texas-Mexican border tensions in early 1900s.......2004-10-29
During the decade of 1910-20, tensions between Mexico and the United States over incidents relating to Pancho Villa's threat to Mexico's president Venustiano Carranza and U. S. incursions into Mexico led by General John Pershing had become so tense that the "situation was not dissimilar to that of Jewish settlers in the West Bank"; with the small number of white Texans along the border being compared to the Jewish settlers surrounded by a much greater number of resentful Palestinians. In this situation, the Texas governors of this decade--Colquitt, Ferguson, and Hobby--used the Texas Rangers to protect Texas citizens and combat the tactics of Mexicans directed by Carranza and in some cases acting as vigilantes. The unique and in ways controversial activities of the Texas Rangers in this complex, volatile, and fluid situation is the subject the authors hone in on. Harris and Sadler, both former professors at New Mexico State U., bring to light little-known dimensions of the historical events, which continue to affect relationships and feelings between the white Texans and Hispanics in the area. There was much lawlessness on both sides. Mexican Army troops dressed as civilians crossed the border to raid Texas communities. After Texas Rangers executed two Mexican agitators after taking them by force from the F.B.I., the U. S. Attorney General issued an order that all prisoners henceforth be held by the U. S. Army. The situation was especially complicated not only because of points of opposition between Texas and the U. S. Federal Government, but also because of Mexican president Carranza's desire for recognition by the U. S. while trying at the same time to stand up to it. While concentrating on the unique role of the Rangers in this complex historical situation, Harris and Sadler also construct the context in which their activities took place.
Book Description
Volume 2 of The Mexican Revolution begins with the army counter-revolution of 1913, which ended Francisco Madero's liberal experiment and installed Victoriano Huerta's military rule. After the overthrow of the brutal Huerta, Venustiano Carranza came to the forefront, but his provisional government was opposed by Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, who come powefully to life in Alan Knight's book. Knight offers a fresh interpretation of the great schism of 1914-15, which divided the revolution in its moment of victory, and which led to the final bout of civil war between the forces of Villa and Carranza. By the end of this brilliant study of a popular uprising that deteriorated into political self-seeking and vengeance, nearly all the leading players have been assassinated. In the closing pages, Alan Knight ponders the essential question: what had the revolution changed? His two-volume history, at once dramatic and scrupulously documented, goes against the grain of traditional assessments of the "last great revolution." The two-volume Mexican Revolution won the Albert Beveridge Prize of the American Historical Association in 1986 for best history of the post-1492 Americas and the Bolton Prize of the Conference on Latin American History in 1987.
Book Description
Hailed as the greatest novel of the Mexican Revolution,
The Underdogs recounts the story of an illiterate but charismatic Indian peasant farmer’s part in the rebellion against Porfirio Díaz, and his subsequent loss of belief in the cause when the revolutionary alliance becomes factionalized. Azuela’s masterpiece is a timeless, authentic portrayal of peasant life, revolutionary zeal, and political disillusionment.
Download Description
The news spread like lightning. Villa--the magic word! The Great Man, the salient profile, the unconquerable warrior who, even at a distance, exerts the fascination of a reptile, a boa constrictor.
Customer Reviews:
Scenes from a revolution.......2007-05-20
This novel, although mostly a series of vignettes with only the slightet of plot and character development, never the less delivers a harrowing descripton of the Mexican Revolution.
Revolutionaries or Bandits.......2006-09-24
Mariano Azuela's novel about a group of men fighting in the decade-long Mexican Revolution is a seminal work in Latin American literature. As the concluding essay notes, Azuela's ability to accurately depict all that is most surreal in reality was the starting point for more modern magical realist authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This is a stand-out novel written in a sparse, at times dreamlike style.
The Underdogs, or Los de Abajo, reveals Azuela's ambivalence about the Revolutionary movement. While it is clear that the men persecuting the hero, Demetrio Macias, are not the men one wants controlling the state, Azuela also doesn't hesitate to depict the revolutionaries themselves as bandits, stealing from the peasants they are supposed to defend. The conflict over whether the Mexican Revolutionaries were soldiers or bandits is one that may be found in history books. Azuela's semi-autobiographical novel doesn't offer an answer to that question, but it does provide what some of the most famous historical literature does not: a depiction of the hellishness of war. In that alone, it is a good companion reading to any nonfiction accounts of the Revolution.
Frederick Fornoff's translation is mostly well-done, though his decision not to keep in the dialect in which most of the characters speak is, in my opinion, a poor one. There was an enormous cultural divide between the average revolutionary and the Mexicans living in cities or haciendas. I feel that Azuela's original language reflected that divide. However, this edition is still worth buying, because the concluding essay on Azuela's place in Latin American and epic literature is both poignant and revealing. The Underdogs is a grand novel, for both literature and history buffs.
good book.......2006-03-15
book is excellente. I would recommend this acclaimed book for further study anytime. I appreciate the simplicity and outright insight in the time of a heartless revolution. Please pick this book up when you have the time.
matthew ellsworth
Need to give it a chance..........2005-08-09
The translation or something about the way it was written made it a bit confusing at first, but once you "get" the "writing style" of the book, you will be glad you kept reading.
Devastating and Meaningless.......2005-04-08
THE UNDERDOGS may well be about the spirit of the Mexican people, as some other reviews have suggested, but its conclusions are quite different. Don't think this is some inspiring story of the noble masses and their unconquerable spirit!
Azuela was writing in response to previous romantic depictions of the Mexican revolution -- you know, Pancho Villa the poor heroic figure of the countryside. Many had argued -- and still are, as you can see from some of these other reviews -- that the revolution was a turning point and created a new, more modern mexico.
In response, Azuela skewered the revolution. His story has almost no dates or locations -- you won't learn anything about the historical facts, as the encyclopedia would define them, of the revolution from this book. What Azuela does depict are the people and their spirit -- but he does this in shockingly unflattering terms.
Much of the book is a parade of violent scene after violent scene. Houses are ransacked, artwork destroyed, people casually killed, women casually raped. For U.S. audiences today, the book might remind us of the film NATURAL BORN KILLERS in terms of its consistent violence with little morality attached.
Moreover, these are not revolutionaries with much of an idea what they are doing. Yes, they are the underdogs of the title. But the underdogs do not want a better state -- a better nation. They mock Cervantes, the intellectual among them. No, the underdogs want to be top dog -- to exploit just as those they replace.
This devastating message is the one the book leaves us: the revolution meant nothing, achieved nothing, and was nothing but Mexico's underdogs lashing out savagely.
It is an easy and enjoyable read, but it can leave you with a Nietzchean feeling that none of this matters...
-- Julian Darius
Book Description
Some of the most famous Western movies have been set against the background of the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century. Now, for the first time in English, Osprey offer a concise but fact-packed account of the events, armies, uniforms and weapons of those ten chaotic and bloody years, putting in context such famous but half-understood names as Diaz, Pancho Villa, Zapata, Madero and Huerta. The text is illustrated with many rare and fascinating period photographs, and with eight detailed color plates of orfiristas and Rurales, Maderisitas, Federales, Villistas, Zapatistas,and US volunteers and intervention troops.
Customer Reviews:
A forgotten bit of history remembered........2006-03-15
Jowett and de Quesada bring the Mexican Revolution to life through their text. Stephen Walsh illustrated this Osprey Elite book. The Mexican Revolution was overshadowed by the Great War, even though the Revolution lasted longer. The authors note that the Mexican Revolution was really a series of conflicts between many different factions--including the United States government. Much of the Revolution would be classified as terrorism or war crimes today.
I learned quite a bit from this small book. The color plates surprised me--American Navy shore party personnel dyed their tropical whites? Makes sense, but I'd have hated to be aboard teh battleship Florida when the crew had to replace their white uniforms! The role of the machine gun in Mexico surprised me, given the chronic ammunition shortages--though the artillery poverty was expected. Money is required, cash in advance, before those "merchants of death" will transfer their wares.
The book contains a comprehensive chronology of the Revolution, plus descriptions of the major combatants. The color plates show representatives of the biggest factions, rounded out by period photographs. Unlike most Osprey books, there is no bibliography to cross-reference. I miss that.
Mexico's Revolution was regarded with fear in Washington at the time. There was suspicion of Imperial German instigation--much like the current War on Terror, the evidence was flimsy or provably false, but there was some German interest in exploiting unrest in Mexico. I think that the Mexican Revolution is still simmering, that it was never concluded. But what do I know?
Average customer rating:
|
Plutarco El'as Calles and the Mexican Revolution (Latin American Silhouettes)
Jrgen Buchenau
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Presidents & Heads of State
| Leaders & Notable People
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Mexico
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| 20th Century
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Revolutionary
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0742537498 |
Amazon.com
This history of the United States's meddling in Mexican affairs features a cast of characters who don't make either side look very good. President Woodrow Wilson regularly misapprehends the situation to his south, prompting two violations of Mexican sovereignty: a naval occupation of Veracruz and an aggressive search by the American military for the bandit Pancho Villa, who raided a town in New Mexico. The Mexican politicians were hardly exemplars of democratic enlightenment, but the American response to their shenanigans sparked an enormous amount of national indignation in Mexico that still hasn't entirely vanished. Brigadier General John J. Pershing, the man charged with hunting down Villa, comes across as an upright soldier and one of the book's few noble figures; he's the central character in Eisenhower's most entertaining section.
Customer Reviews:
Pancho and Pershing.......2001-06-21
Tough as nails history that tells of Mexico during the years of revolution and civil war. Pancho Villa and John "Blackjack" Pershing's punitive expedition is the focal point of the book. The author explains that bungling interventions in Mexico by American politicians didn't alter the fact that Mexicans ultimately determined their own governement. The book is a good introduction to a subject that may be obscure to many American readers, especially 85 years later. Eisenhower does well fleshing out details in the text, in several appendices, and thorough notations. Only a fellow named "Eisenhower" can give one this powerful insider perspective of military and political history. Recommended for multiple reading and further study. ;-)
"Intervention: The United States and the Mexican Revolution".......2001-01-06
I found this book to be extremely well written. It is a topic that engenders many passions, and, opinions on this topic often are based on these passions. The author plainly puts the historical events in perspective in a way that all the events and the characters make sense. The author does not take sides even though he may glamorize Pershing somewhat. The organization of the book is superb and the descriptions of specific events and of specific characters such as Madero, Zapata, Carranza, Huerta, Funston, Obregon and others are excellent. I would recommend this book to anybody, Mexican, American or otherwise, interested in the events of this inevitable and tragic period in the history of Mexico. A very "readable" book. Juan Cardenas
Non-biased view points of both sides of the border.......1998-03-08
The author has done a good job in presenting the facts and history leading up to the American intervention into Mexican affairs during the early part of this (20th) century. This book details the American air of superiority as well as Pancho Villa's reason's for raiding Columbus, NM. This is a great book for anyone interested in that period of Mexican-American history
Excellent overview for the non specialist........1997-03-14
This book is an excellent sythesis of the latest research and writings of the specialists in the field of US Mexican relations. It is just enough for the non specialist to enjoy and frankly, for a specialist such as myself in this period, I found it well worth reading too. It reads well and can be read in a couple of days at most. While I have had even longer a copy of Alan Knight's massive synthesis I admit that I have yet to read that one all the way through. Just the footnotes could take a day.
If you want a good sort out of the major players on both sides of the border this is for you. Ronald Atkins' Revolution once was the "one book if you're having only one", but that one is long out of print. This is an even better one.
Carter Rila "el cutachero"
Book Description
The Mexican Revolution was like no other: it was fueled by no vanguard party, no coherent ideology, no international ambitions; and ultimately it served to reinforce rather than to subvert many of the features of the old regime it overthrew. Alan Knight argues that a populist uprising brought about the fall of longtime dictator Porfirio Díaz in 1910. It was one of those "relatively rare episodes in history when the mass of the people profoundly influenced events." In this first of two volumes Knight shows how urban liberals joined in uneasy alliance with agrarian interests to install Francisco Madero as president and how his attempts to bring constitutional democracy to Mexico were doomed by counter-revolutionary forces. The Mexican Revolution illuminates on all levels, local and national, the complex history of an era. Rejecting fashionable Marxist and revisionist interpretations, it comes as close as any work can to being definitive.
Customer Reviews:
An Authoritative Account of the Mexican Revolution.......2007-06-18
This two volume book on the Mexican Revolution is massive, and for twenty years now it has stood as one of the most important works on the Mexican Revolution. Knight's research is exhaustive, and his writing style is unique with an impressive command of the English language. The work weaves between narrative and analysis, and the reader is always kept aware of the historiography of the Mexican Revolution, which is still a contentious theme in Mexican history almost one hundred years now after the Revolution. Knight's work is definitive and should be read by any serious student of the greats events of the twentieth century.
Sometimes academic rigour is what's needed.......2003-12-09
This two-volume history of the Mexican Revolution is absolutely packed with case studies and individual narratives. Knight's vision is one of many and various Mexicos, all of which experienced a different revolution. Far from being simply to entertain, the role of a history text is to explain what happened. Knight puts forward a strong, if not universally accepted, case for the dismissal of grand theories of a single process, instead arguing that the revolution meant one thing to the generals of the north, quite another to the peasants of the centre, and very little to (for example) the Indians of the south. The reader may feel confused by the book; there is nothing wrong with such an outcome - it was a confusing period of history during which few people knew what was happening and with what likely effect.
Random musings.......2002-01-22
This book totally defies history's number one precept which is to entertain. Knight follows a random course through the Mexican Revolution digressing into such inane topics as the difference between a revolution and rebellion, or the difference between social and criminal banditry. Furthermore, he bogs down in trying to classify the different parts of the revolution as revolutionary or counterrevolutionary basically coming to the conclusion that the revolution was caudillismo on a grand scale where ideologies are overwhelmed by personal vendettas and disagreements between pueblos that go back to antiquity.
Knight finally finishes up with two main assertions that are neither enlightening nor cogent. The first is his characterization of the war as a struggle between mountaineers and lowlanders. The second is that the conventionist forces were regionalists versus the constitutionalists who advocated a strong central government. Merely characterizing the opponents is supposed to suffice for analyis. There is nothing here to suggest a paradigm for future or contemporary revolutions, nor to provide real insight in the Mexican Revolution itself. It's wholly academic and sterile.
This book contains many vignettes and examples to support Knight's "theories", but it is altogether not a good overview of the war.
I would recommend this book to a student of the revolution, already well versed who wants to gain some new information.
Books:
- The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
- The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living
- The Maya, Seventh Edition (Ancient Peoples and Places)
- The Namesake: A Novel
- The Scalpel and the Silver Bear: The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing
- The Terror: A Novel
- The War for American Independence: From 1760 to the Surrender at Yorktown in 1781
- The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West
- They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan
- Thirteen Moons: A Novel
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Hedge Funds: Quantitative Insights
- Flags of Our Fathers
- 25 Stupid Mistakes You Don't Want to Make in the Stock Market
- Accounting Principles, with CD, 6th Edition
- Coaching for Improved Work Performance, Revised Edition
- Craft Of The Wild Witch: Green Spirituality & Natural Enchantment
- Comercio Internacional I / International Commerce I: Mercadotecnia International Importacion-Exporta
- Financial Statement Presentation, 1988-89
- Action Dialogues: Meaningful Conversations to Accelerate Change
- Astronauts: and Other Stories
Villa and Zapata: A History of the Mexican Revolution
Patriotic Fire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans (Vintage)
The Life and Times of Pancho Villa
The Mexican Revolution 1910-20 (Elite)
Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West
