Synopses & Reviews
In late nineteenth-century Mexico the Mexican populace was fascinated with the countryand#8217;s booming railroad network. Newspapers and periodicals were filled with art, poetry, literature, and social commentaries exploring the symbolic power of the railroad. As a symbol of economic, political, and industrial modernization, the locomotive served to demarcate a nationand#8217;s status in the world. However, the dangers of locomotive travel, complicated by the fact that Mexicoand#8217;s railroads were foreign owned and operated, meant that the railroad could also symbolize disorder, death, and foreign domination.
In The Civilizing Machine Michael Matthews explores the ideological and cultural milieu that shaped the Mexican peopleand#8217;s understanding of technology. Intrinsically tied to the Porfiriato, the thirty-five-year dictatorship of Gen. Porfirio Dand#237;az, the booming railroad network represented material progress in a country seeking its place in the modern world. Matthews discloses how the railroadand#8217;s development represented the crowning achievement of the regime and the material incarnation of its mantra, and#8220;order and progress.and#8221; The Porfirian administration evoked the railroad in legitimizing and justifying its own reign, while political opponents employed the same rhetorical themes embodied by the railroads to challenge the manner in which that regime achieved economic development and modernization. As Matthews illustrates, the multiple symbols of the locomotive reflected deepening social divisions and foreshadowed the conflicts that eventually brought about the Mexican Revolution.
and#160;
Review
"Pistoleros and Popular Movements is an astonishingly thorough work to which all students of twentieth century Oaxaca will have to refer, and it makes arguments about the post-1940 period that all historians of modern Mexico must consider."—Kenneth F. Maffitt, A Contracorriente Kenneth F. Maffitt
Review
"[Smith] makes use of extensive state and federal archives (public and private) along with Oaxacan newspapers and a broad range of secondary works."—S. F. Voss, CHOICE A Contracorriente
Review
"Amply researched and meticulously documented, this book enriches our understanding of the enduring nature of the PRI."—Tanalís Padilla, American Historical Review S. F. Voss - CHOICE
Review
"Local and state politics in the 1940s and early 1950s Mexico is largely uncharted terrain. Smith's careful archival work tells us a great deal that we did not know before about the relationships between popular movements and organizations, regional and state elites, and national politics and policies during this period."—Jennie Purnell, Americas Tanal�s Padilla - American Historical Review
Review
“Benjamin Smiths elegant and meticulously researched history of post-revolutionary Oaxaca sheds new light on the tortuous dialectic of Mexican state formation. Eschewing pluralist, statist, and neo-Gramscian models, Smith evokes ‘the perpetual rumble of popular revolt and counter-hegemonic discourse, the echoes of which still resonate in Oaxaca today.”Adrian Bantjes, author of As if Jesus Walked on Earth: Cardenismo, Sonora, and the Mexican Revolution -- Jennie Purnell - Americas
Review
"Smith's book enters a new field, a history of state/society relations in post-1940 Mexico, with methodological and interpretive panache. This big book, dealing with big processes, should exert a big influence on scholars of both its thematic and its geographical concerns."—Paul Gillingham, Journal of Interdisciplinary History Jennie Purnell - Americas
Review
"Ben Smith has written a wonderful and important book that will remain obligatory reading for many years to come for those interested in state formation, and for scholars interested in the fascinating postrevolutionary history of Oaxaca. The combination of methodological rigor, theoretical proficiency, and good writing makes this a book that deserves many readers from history students to political science professors."—Wil Pansters, European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies Paul Gillingham - Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Review
"Matthews's work makes a solid contribution to the growing literature on the Porfiriato."and#8212;William Schell, Jr., Americas
Review
and#8220;The first cultural study of railroads in Mexico. Matthewsand#8217;s study is timely . . . with lively accounts and interesting analysis.and#8221;and#8212;James A. Garza, associate professor of history and ethnic studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Review
"A solid addition to the study of postindependence Mexico."and#8212;Choice
Review
andquot;This is an original and valuable study that deepens our understanding of Porfirian modernity.andquot;andmdash;Robert F. Alegre, American Historical Review
Review
andquot;The Plan de San Diego is one of the most valuable and original additions to the literature of the Mexican Revolution to be released in recent years.andquot;andmdash;Mark E. Benbow, American Historical Review
Review
andquot;Harris and Sadlerand#39;s efforts to re-insert Mexico, the Mexican Revolution, and diplomacy into the history of the Plan de San Diego add an important dimension to our understanding both of this incident and of the early-twentieth-century U. S. Southwest and Borderlands more broadly.andquot;andmdash;Lisa Pinley Covert, New Mexico Historical Review
Review
andldquo;For most of its eighty-plus years, the media behemoth known today as Televisa, long the de facto propaganda arm of the Mexican state, has been all but hermetically sealed against inspection by researchers. Few have interviewed its executives, let alone probed its archives. That Celeste Gonzandaacute;lez de Bustamante has accessed two decadesandrsquo; worth of broadcast news scripts is a feat of scholarly gumption and tenacity. Her resulting book offers a fascinating and unprecedentedly detailed account of news dissemination between 1950 and 1970 by the most influential television company in the Spanish- speaking world.andrdquo;andmdash;Andrew Paxman, Hispanic American Historical Review
Review
andldquo;As the party that governed Mexico for seventy years returns to power amid protests over collusion between the media and politicians, Celeste Gonzandaacute;lez de Bustamante has published a timely examination of just how much influence television has. Based on five case studies and rare access to the archives of Latin Americaandrsquo;s most influential television empire, Televisa, the study offers far more than its title promises. . . . The study also adds important insights to the rich literature on national identity formation. Muy Buenas Noches is a significant contribution that will add to the scholarly discussion in a variety of disciplines and fields.andrdquo;andmdash;Juanita Darling, American Journalism
Review
andldquo;Each chapterandrsquo;s consistent grounding in the larger arc of Mexican and international history makes Muy Buenas Noches an easily digestible book, even for those with little previous knowledge of the country. Undoubtedly, Muy Buenas Noches will stand as a central text for future researchers intrigued by the questions Gonzandaacute;lez de Bustamante raises, as well as those searching for the historical roots of the countryandrsquo;s current media climate.andrdquo;andmdash;Taylor Jardno, NACLA Report on the Americasand#160;and#160;
Review
andldquo;One of the strengths of Gonzandaacute;lezandrsquo;s book lays in her ability to paint a vivid picture of the behind-the-scenes machinations that defined the relationship between Telesistema Mexicano and the Mexican government. . . . and#160;Celeste Gonzandaacute;lez de Bustamante has produced an outstanding account of the first two decades of Mexican television news. Her illumination of the tensions that infused the connections between Telesistema Mexicano, the PRI, Mexican viewers, and the United States during the Cold War succeeds in underscoring the limits of cultural hegemony. In the process, this well written and solidly researched monograph will be of interest to both scholars and students of modern Mexico, media studies, and the Cold War.andrdquo;andmdash;Michael A. Krysko, A Contra corriente
Review
andquot;Matthews supplies overwhelming evidence to show how the railroad engine became a cultural lightning rod. It is difficult to think of a contemporary corollary with such cultural significance, which only underscores the value of this book to understanding the late nineteenth century in Mexico.andquot;andmdash;Andrew Offenburger, Western Historical Quarterly
Synopsis
The postrevolutionary reconstruction of the Mexican government did not easily or immediately reach all corners of the country. At every level, political intermediaries negotiated, resisted, appropriated, or ignored the dictates of the central government. National policy reverberated through Mexicos local and political networks in countless different ways and resulted in a myriad of regional arrangements. It is this process of diffusion, politicking, and conflict that Benjamin T. Smith examines in
Pistoleros and Popular Movements.
Oaxacas urban social movements and the tension between federal, state, and local governments illuminate the multivalent contradictions, fragmentations, and crises of the state-building effort at the regional level. A better understanding of these local transformations yields a more realistic overall view of the national project of state building. Smith places Oaxaca within this larger framework of postrevolutionary Mexico by comparing the region to other states and linking local politics to state and national developments. Drawing on an impressive range of regional case studies, this volume is a comprehensive and engaging study of postrevolutionary Oaxacas role in the formation of modern Mexico.
Synopsis
The Plan of San Diego, a rebellion proposed in 1915 to overthrow the U.S. government in the Southwest and establish a Hispanic republic in its stead, remains one of the most tantalizing documents of the Mexican Revolution. The plan called for an insurrection of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans in support of the Mexican Revolution and the waging of a genocidal war against Anglos. The resulting violence approached a race war and has usually been portrayed as a Hispanic struggle for liberation brutally crushed by the Texas Rangers, among others.
The Plan de San Diego: Tejano Rebellion, Mexican Intrigue, based on newly available archival documents, is a revisionist interpretation focusing on both south Texas and Mexico. Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler argue convincingly that the insurrection in Texas was made possible by support from Mexico when it suited the regime of President Venustiano Carranza, who co-opted and manipulated the plan and its supporters for his own political and diplomatic purposes in support of the Mexican Revolution.
The study examines the papers of Augustine Garza, a leading promoter of the plan, as well as recently released and hitherto unexamined archival material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation documenting the day-to-day events of the conflict.
Synopsis
By the end of the twentieth century, Mexican multimedia conglomerate Televisa stood as one of the most powerful media companies in the world. Most scholars have concluded that the companyand#8217;s success was owed in large part to its executives who walked in lockstep with the government and the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), which ruled for seventy-one years. At the same time, government decisions regulating communications infrastructure aided the development of the television industry. In one of the first books to be published in English on Mexican television, Celeste Gonzand#225;lez de Bustamante argues that despite the cozy relationship between media moguls and the PRI, these connections should not be viewed as static and without friction.
Through an examination of early television news programs, this book reveals the tensions that existed between what the PRI and government officials wanted to be reported and what was actually reported and how. Further, despite the increasing influence of television on society, viewers did not always accept or agree with what they saw on the air. Television news programming played an integral role in creating a sense of lo mexicano (that which is Mexican) at a time of tremendous political, social, and cultural change. At its core the book grapples with questions about the limits of cultural hegemony at the height of the PRI and the cold war.
Synopsis
The
pronunciamiento, a formal list of grievances designed to spark political change in nineteenth-century Mexico, was a problematic yet necessary practice. Although pronunciamientos rarely achieved the goals for which they were undertaken and sometimes resulted in armed rebellion, they were nonetheless both celebrated and commemorated, and the perceptions and representations of pronunciamientos themselves reflected the Mexican peopleand#8217;s response to these and#8220;revolutions.and#8221;
The third in a series of books examining the pronunciamiento, this collection addresses the complicated legacy of pronunciamientos and their place in Mexican political culture. The essays explore the sacralization and legitimization of these revolts and of their leaders in the nationand#8217;s history and consider why these celebrations proved ultimately ineffective in consecrating the pronunciamiento as a force for good, rather than one motivated by desires for power, promotion, and plunder. Celebrating Insurrection offers readers interpretations of acts of celebration and commemoration that explain the uneasy adoption of pronunciamientos as Mexicoand#8217;s preferred means of effecting political change during this turbulent period in the nationand#8217;s history.
About the Author
Will Fowler is a professor of Latin American Studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He is the editor of
Forceful Negotiations: The Origins of the Pronunciamiento
in Nineteenth-Century Mexico and
Malcontents, Rebels, and Pronunciados
: The Politics of Insurrection in Nineteenth-Century Mexico, and the author of
Santa Anna of Mexico, all available from the University of Nebraska Press.