A unique compilation of diverse sources, many in English translation for the first time, this book documents the Mexican Revolution, explains its popular and agrarian nature, and helps to clarify its often perplexing conflicts, alliances, and issues.
The Mexican Revolution was decades in the making, with a variety of factors ultimately converging to bring Mexico’s desire for change to a head. It was a moment all the more fascinating for the conflicts within the revolutionary movement itself, among followers of Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Alvaro Obregon—conflicts that continued to reverberate in the young nation long after the revolution had been won.
Competing Voices from the Mexican Revolution: Fighting Words lets readers see this watershed moment in Mexican history in a new light, through the eyes of people who actually experienced it.
This annotated collection of brief primary sources—from Mexican and U.S. government documents, novels, news articles, ballads, travel accounts and memoirs, manifestos, correspondence, and graphic arts—brings together a wide range of contrasting opinions on the revolution’s pivotal moments and controversies. From the beginnings of social unrest in the 1890s to the war’s conclusion in 1923, readers can assess debates between factions, follow key individuals and military/political movements, evaluate the motives of participants, explore U.S.-Mexican relations, and gauge the war’s impact across the full spectrum of Mexican society, including women and the peasant and working classes.
Features
• Includes a chronology of the main events leading up to the revolution, from 1876 to 1910, and of the Mexican Revolution itself, from 1910 to 1920
• Offers a bibliography of the archival material and published primary and secondary works from which the commentary and excerpts were drawn
Highlights
• Provides a broad and diverse collection of documents, including many materials that appear in English translation for the first time, offering a unique source of materials for scholars and students alike
• Ranges across the breadth of Mexican society, going beyond political and military leaders and the elite class to consider the viewpoints of women, peasants, and the working class
• Highlights the distinctively powerful role of music in the revolution, with excerpts from ballads about key events and personalities
Chris B. Frazer received his PhD from Brown University and is associate professor in the department of history at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. His published works include Bandit Nation: A History of Outlaws and Cultural Struggle in Mexico, 1810–1920.
Reviews
"Edited by Frazer (history, St. Francis, Xavier U., Canada), this is an annotated documentary reader that provides a survey of the diverse views and debates that surrounded the events of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 through the presentation of excerpts from memoirs, polemical tracts, literary works, diplomatic and political correspondence, and newspaper articles, as well as a few of the most important plans and manifestos, such as those issued by Francisco Madero and Emiliano Zapata."—Reference & Research Book News
