About the Book

This major interpretive history of the making of modern Mexico, from the Insurgent priests of the early nineteenth century to the presidency of Zedillo, provides an incisive portrait of Mexican culture, society, and politics and key elements of Mexico's past.aThe legacy of the Aztec emperors, CortÄs, the Spanish Crown, the mother Church, and the mixing of the Spanish and Indian population into a mestizo culture are key elements of Mexican history, as is the concentration of power in the person of the caudillo, or leader. History becomes biography, and the lives of the different caudillos are the historical tradition of Mexico. Santa Anna, Juçrez, and Porfirio DÆaz are three central figures up to 1910, when DÆaz, a monarch in republican clothing who had ruled the country since 1876, was engulfed by the Revolution and exiled to die in Paris. As always there was the threat and reality of the American presence from the north. The Revolution lasted ten years, and political unrest continued until 1940. There were nearly a million casualties during the Revolutionary era, and through the lives of the seven caudillos-Madero, Zapata, Villa, Carranza, Obregùn, Calles and Cçrdenas-the history of the period unfolds.aThe next part of the book deals with the evolution and development of the modern state from 1940 to 1970, beginning with an assessment of the Revolutionary period, then showing the formation of today's political system, and culminating in the tragic events of the 1968 student uprisings at Tlatelolco. As before, it is through the lives, personalities, and actions of various Presidents that history unfolds. The final section, on contemporary Mexico (1970-1996), is particularly valuable because there is little else available on this period and it addresses one of the major questions of Mexico's future: whether the political system can decentralize the concentration of power in the presidential office and end the cycles of history as biographies of power.

Critical Praise

"Krauze offers a unique perspective of modern Mexico by interweaving the biographies of a number of consequential nineteenth- and twentieth-century leaders into a cohesive historical overview of the Mexican nation. . . . An insightful examination of how this unbroken cycle of power has played a decisive role in the political and social history of Mexico." — Booklist

"A book which fulfills to perfection the two-fold requirement for works of history: it combines rigorous investigation with an imagination that makes the past and people and events come alive." — Octavio Paz, author of The Labyrinth of Solitude

"A book worthy of Mexico's tumultuous history and vital to our understanding." — Kenneth Maxwell, Time

"A magisterial history...Mr. Krauze's book will surely stand for many years as the standard history of postcolonial Mexico...with its scope and color, his mural makes its powerful, unique impression." — Wall Street Journal

"A vast interpretive synthesis of two centuries of Mexican political history. . . . Krauze is masterful in bringing his characters to life." — John Bailey, Washington Post

"Much in the manner of Richard Hofstadter's tour de force The American Political Tradition, Enrique Krauze has sought to tell the remarkable history of Mexico through the men who made it." — Saul Landau, Los Angeles Times

"So what to read for an introduction to what has happened in the last couple of centuries in Mexico? The answer can now be confidently given: Enrique Krauze's original, affecting and often entertaining history of Mexico since 1810. This beautifully written book has been splendidly translated from Spanish by Hank Heifetz." — Hugh Thomas, The New Republic

"Amazingly ambitious. . . . This shrewd and in many ways brave book is necessary reading. With luck it will help Americans appreciate that Mexico is more than an abstract policy dilemma." — Sarah Kerr, New York Times Book Review

"An important contribution to the literature on Mexico's turbulent and fascinating past. . . . His focus on Mexico's leaders—the "great man" approach to history—seems particularly appropriate here and makes this book, however long, a fascinating read." — Business Week

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Product Details

• ISBN: 9780060929176
• ISBN 10: 0060929170
• Imprint: Harper Perennial
• On Sale: 06/03/1998
• Trimsize: 6.120 in (w) x 9.250 in (h) x 1.430 in (d)
• Pages: 896
• List Price: $23.99
• BISAC1 : HISTORY / Latin America / Central America
• BISAC2 : HISTORY / Latin America / Mexico
• BISAC3 : POLITICAL SCIENCE / Comparative Politics