Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico : Men, Women, and War

by Wasserman, Mark

• ISBN13: 9780826321718
• ISBN10: 0826321712
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of New Mexico Pr

Summary

In this new and masterful synthesis, Wasserman shows the link between ordinary men and women preoccupied with the demands of feeding, clothing, and providing shelter and the elites desire for a stable political order and an expanding economy. The emphasis in this book is on the struggle of the common people to retain control over their everyday lives. Concerns central to village life were the appointment of police officials, imposition of taxes on Indians, the trustworthiness of local priests, and changes in land ownership. Communities often followed their leaders into one political camp or another and even into war out of loyalty. During wartime, women acted as the supply, transportation, and medical corps of the Mexican armies. Moreover, with greater frequency than has been known, women fought as soldiers in the nineteenth century.

Table of Contents

Illustrations, Maps, and Tables	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	3	(12)
Part I. The Age of Troubles	15	(76)
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna	17	(5)
Timeline	21	(1)
Everyday Life, 1821--46: Tradition and Turmoil	22	(23)
The Politics of Disorder, 1821--45	45	(16)
The Origins of Underdevelopment	61	(13)
The Disastrous War	74	(17)
Part II. The Age of Civil Wars	91	(68)
Benito Juarez	93	(6)
Timeline	98	(1)
Politics and Economy in Civil War, 1848--61	99	(13)
Foreign Intervention and Reconstruction, 1861--67	112	(21)
Everyday Life, 1849--76: The Impact of War and Reform	133	(26)
Part III. The Age of Order and Progress	159	(70)
Porfirio Diaz	161	(7)
Timeline	167	(1)
The Economy of Progress	168	(14)
Everyday Life, 1877--1910: The Onslaught of Change	182	(27)
The Politics of Order, 1877--1910	209	(20)
Epilogue	229	(4)
Selected Bibliography	233	(6)
Index	239