Synopses & Reviews
Mexicoand#8217;s
Reforma, the mid-nineteenth-century liberal revolution, decisively shaped the country by disestablishing the Catholic Church, secularizing public affairs, and laying the foundations of a truly national economy and culture.
and#160;and#160;The Lawyer of the Church is an examination of the Mexican clergyand#8217;s response to the Reforma through a study of the life and works of Bishop Clemente de Jesand#250;s Munguand#237;a (1810and#8211;68), one of the most influential yet least-known figures of the period. By analyzing how Munguand#237;a responded to changing political and intellectual scenarios in defense of the clergyand#8217;s legal prerogatives and social role, Pablo Mijangos y Gonzand#225;lez argues that the Catholic Church opposed the liberal revolution not because of its supposed attachment to a bygone past but rather because of its efforts to supersede colonial tradition and refashion itself within a liberal yet confessional state. With an eye on the international influences and dimensions of the Mexican church-state conflict, The Lawyer of the Church also explores how Mexican bishops gradually tightened their relationship with the Holy See and simultaneously managed to incorporate the papacy into their local affairs, thus paving the way for the eventual and#8220;Romanizationand#8221; of Mexican Catholicism during the later decades of the century.and#160;
Review
and#8220;A new, broadly learned, critical, illuminating, and highly significant account of Clemente de Jesand#250;s Munguand#237;aand#8217;s important part in the struggles for Mexico. This is a book every historian of Mexico should read; its value will last long.and#8221;and#8212;John Womack, author of
Zapata and the Mexican Revolutionand#160;
Review
and#8220;The most thorough and extended intellectual history yet written of the Catholic Church as it faced up to the Reform, if not one of the better cultural histories of the Reform written from any angle.and#8221;and#8212;Matthew Butler, author of Popular Piety and Political Identity in Mexicoand#8217;s Cristero Rebellion: Michoacand#225;n, 1927and#8211;1929
Review
"The questions raised by the authors are important and the empirical contribution of the volume significant."—Eric Van Young, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Synopsis
Often translated as “revolt,” a pronunciamiento was a formal, written protest, typically drafted as a list of grievances or demands, that could result in an armed rebellion. This common nineteenth-century Hispano-Mexican extraconstitutional practice was used by soldiers and civilians to forcefully lobby, negotiate, or petition for political change. Although the majority of these petitions failed to achieve their aims, many leading political changes in nineteenth-century Mexico were caused or provoked by one of the more than fifteen hundred pronunciamientos filed between 1821 and 1876. The first of three volumes on the phenomenon of the pronunciamiento, this collection brings together leading scholars to investigate the origins of these forceful petitions. From both a regional and a national perspective, the essays examine specific pronunciamientos, such as the Plan of Iguala, and explore the contexts that gave rise to the use of the pronunciamiento as a catalyst for change. Forceful Negotiations offers a better understanding of the civil conflicts that erupted with remarkable and tragic consistency following the achievement of independence, as well as of the ways in which Mexican political culture legitimized the threat of armed rebellion as a means of effecting political change during this turbulent period.
About the Author
Will Fowler is the Director of Research of the School of Modern Languages at the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of many publications, including Latin America since 1780; Tornel and Santa Anna: The Writer and the Caudillo, Mexico, 1795-1853; and Santa Anna of Mexico, available in a Bison Books edition. Contributors include Ivana Frasquet, Manuel Chust, Josefina Vázquez, Michael Ducey, Shara Ali, Reynaldo Sordo, Timothy E. Anna, Kerry Anne McDonald, Michael Costeloe, Melissa Boyd, Rosie Doyle, and Germán Martínez Martínez.