Mexican History

Essential essays from “one of the most prolific, provocative, and pre-eminent historians working in the field of Mexican and Latin-American history today” (Susan Deans-Smith, author of Bureaucrats, Planters, and Workers). This collection brings together a group of important and influential essays on Mexican history and historiography by Eric Van Young, a leading scholar in the field. The essays, several of which appear here in English for the first time, are primarily historiographical; that is, they address the ways in which separate historical literatures have developed over time. They cover a wide range of topics: the historiography of the colonial and nineteenth-century Mexican and Latin American countryside; historical writing in English on the history of colonial Mexico; British, American, and Mexican historical writing on the Mexican Independence movement; the methodology of regional and cultural history; and the relationship of cultural to economic history. Some of the essays have been and will continue to be controversial, while others—for example, those on studies of the Mexican hacienda since 1980, on the theory and method of regional history, and on the “new cultural history” of Mexico—are widely considered classics of the genre. “Van Young is one of the two or three preeminent thinkers in the Mexican and Latin American field whose essays are of such pioneering and enduring value to warrant this kind of greatest hits collection. Not only does he cross fields and disciplines and integrate northern and southern intellectual currents, his essays are a pleasure to read and constitute a rare combination of analytical bite, erudition, and playfulness.” —Gilbert M. Joseph, Yale University

This new edition draws on both classic and current sources to provide a comprehensive survey of Mexican history from the pre-Columbian period to the latest presidential election.

Before the modern country was born in 1821, the territory that today comprises 32 states and few small islands was inhabited by ancient dynasties and kingdoms of warriors, astronomers, priests, temples for human sacrifice, and, surprisingly, some of the largest cities in the world.

This book is a skillful synthesis of Mexico's complex and colorful history from pre-Columbian times to the present. Utilizing his many years of research and teaching as well as his personal experience in Mexico, the author incorporates recent archaeological evidence, posits fresh interpretations, and analyzes such current problems as foreign debt, dependency on petroleum exports, and providing education and employment for an expanding population. Combining political events and social history in a smooth narrative, the book describes events, places, and individuals, the daily life of peasants and urban workers, and touches on cultural topics, including architecture, art, literature, and music. As a special feature, each chapter contains excerpts from contemporary letters, books, decrees, or poems, firsthand accounts that lend historical flavor to the discussion of each era. Mexico has an exciting history: several Indian civilizations; the Spanish conquest; three colonial centuries, during which there was a blending of Old World and New World cultures; a decade of wars for independence; the struggle of the young republic; wars with the United States and France; confrontation between the Indian president, Juárez, and the Austrian born emperor, Maximilian; a long dictatorship under Diaz; the Great Revolution that destroyed debt peonage, confiscated Church property, and reduced foreign economic power; and the recent drive to modernize through industrialization. Mexico: A History will be an excellent college-level textbook and good reading for the thousands of Americans who have visited Mexico and those who hope to visit.

Mexican History is a comprehensive and innovative primary source reader in Mexican history from the pre-Columbian past to the neoliberal present. Chronologically organized chapters facilitate the book's assimilation into most course syllabi. Its selection of documents thoughtfully conveys enduring themes of Mexican history--land and labor, indigenous people, religion, and state formation--while also incorporating recent advances in scholarly research on the frontier, urban life, popular culture, race and ethnicity, and gender. Student-friendly pedagogical features include contextual introductions to each chapter and each reading, lists of key terms and related sources, and guides to recommended readings and Web-based resources.

Drawing on materials ranging from archaeological findings to recent studies of migration issues and drug violence, William H. Beezley provides a dramatic narrative of human events as he recounts the story of Mexico in the context of world history. Beginning with the Mayan and Aztec civilizations and their brutal defeat at the hands of the Conquistadors, Beezley discusses Spain's three-hundred-year colonial rule, foreign invasions and huge territorial losses at the hands of the United States, and conditions in Mexico today.

"In Planet Taco, Jeffrey Pilcher traces the historical origins and evolution of Mexico's national cuisine, explores its incarnation as a Mexican American fast-food, shows how surfers became global pioneers of Mexican food, and how Corona beer conquered the world. Pilcher is particularly enlightening on what the history of Mexican food reveals about the uneasy relationship between globalization and authenticity. The burritos and taco shells that many people think of as Mexican were actually created in the United States. But Pilcher argues that the contemporary struggle between globalization and national sovereignty to determine the authenticity of Mexican food goes back hundreds of years. During the nineteenth century, Mexicans searching for a national cuisine were torn between nostalgic "Creole" Hispanic dishes of the past and French haute cuisine, the global food of the day. Indigenous foods were scorned as unfit for civilized tables. Only when Mexican American dishes were appropriated by the fast food industry and carried around the world did Mexican elites rediscover the foods of the ancient Maya and Aztecs and embrace the indigenous roots of their national cuisine"--

The tenth anniversary edition of The Oxford History of Mexico tells the fascinating story of Mexico as it has evolved from the reign of the Aztecs through the twenty-first century. Available for the first time in paperback, this magnificent volume covers the nation's history in a series of essays written by an international team of scholars. Essays have been revised to reflect events of the past decade, recent discoveries, and the newest advances in scholarship, while a new introduction discusses such issues as immigration from Mexico to the United States and the democratization implied by the defeat of the official party in the 2000 and 2006 presidential elections. Newly released to commemorate the bicentennial of the Mexican War of Independence and the centennial of the Mexican Revolution, this updated and redesigned volume offers an affordable, accessible, and compelling account of Mexico through the ages.