The Mexican Revolution A Brief History with Documents

by Wasserman, Mark

• ISBN13: 9780312535049
• ISBN10: 031253504X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-03-02
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

During the Mexican Revolution a remarkable alliance of peasants, working and middle classes, and elites banded together to end General Porfirio Diaz's thirty-five year rule as dictator-president and created a radical new constitution that demanded education for all children, redistributed land and water resources, and established progressive labor laws. In this collection, Mark Wasserman examines the causes, conduct, and consequences of the revolution and carefully untangles the shifting alliances of the participants. In his introduction Wasserman outlines the context for the revolution, rebels' differing goals for land redistribution, and the resulting battles between rebel leaders and their generals. He also examines daily life and the conduct of the revolution, as well as its national and international legacy. The accompanying selected sources include political documents along with dozens of accounts from politicians and generals to male and female soldiers, civilians, and journalists. Collectively they offer insight into the reasons for fighting, the politics behind the war, and the revolution's international legacy. Document headnotes, a chronology, selected bibliography, and questions for consideration provide pedagogical support.

Author Biography

Mark Wasserman (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is a Professor of History at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He teaches courses on the history of Latin America and its revolutions. Dr. Wasserman is the author of Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico: Men, Women, and War, Persistent Oligarchs: Elites and Politics in Chihuahua, Mexico, 1910–1940, and Capitalists, Caciques, and Revolution: The Native Elite and Foreign Enterprise in Chihuahua, Mexico, 1854–1911. He is also the co-author of Latin America and Its People, Second Edition, with Cheryl E. Martin, and A History of Latin America, Third Edition, with Benjamin Keen. He has previously served as President of the Council on Latin America History.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
List of Illustrations	p. xvii
Introduction: The Causes, Course, and Consequences of the Mexican Revolution	p. 1
The Background of the Revolution	p. 2
The Origins of the Revolution	p. 4
Victory, Counterrevolution, and Civil War	p. 10
The Hard Life of the Revolution	p. 13
The Results of the Revolution	p. 19
International Ramifications	p. 23
Reconstruction	p. 26
The Documents	p. 29
The Causes of the Revolution	p. 31
Partido Liberal Mexicano, The Program of the Mexican Liberal Party, 1906	p. 31
James Creelman, Interview with Porfirio Díaz, 1908	p. 33
Francisco I. Madero, The Plan of San Luis Potosí, 1910	p. 35
Emiliano Zapata, The Plan of Ayala, 1911	p. 37
Francisco "Pancho" Villa, Dreams for a Future Mexico, ca. 1913	p. 39
John Kenneth Turner, Barbarous Mexico, 1910	p. 40
B. Traven, Corruption, 1931	p. 47
José Guadalupe Posada, The Bloody Events in the City of Puebla, 1910	p. 48
At War	p. 50
John Reed, Villa's Rules of War, 1914	p. 50
John Reed, The Horrors of Battle, 1914	p. 53
Francisco "Pancho" Villa, The Battle of Tierra Blanca, November 21, 1913	p. 59
J. B. Treviño, A Losing General's Perspective, ca. 1916	p. 62
Emiliano Zapata, The Possibility of Alliance with Villa, 1914	p. 63
Alvaro Obregón, The Battle at Celaya, April 13-15,1915	p. 66
Soldiers' Lives	p. 69
John Reed, The Soldaderas, 1914	p. 70
Anthony Quinn, A Soldier's Wife, 1972	p. 74
Veterans of the Mexican Revolution, Experiences of the War, 1910-1920	p. 73
Marcelo Caraveo, Fighting without Pay, 1911	p. 85
Anita Brenner and George Leighton, Photographs of Soldiers and Soldaderas, ca. 1910-1920	p. 86
Adelita, ca. 1910-1920	p. 91
Civilians' lives	p. 92
Gregorio López y Fuentes, El Indio, 1937	p. 92
Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, My Village during the Revolution, 1984	p. 94
Edith Henry, The Death of Frank Henry, 1916	p. 97
Frank Galván, Escaping the Revolution, 1973	p. 101
Revolutionary Politics	p. 105
Martín Luis Guzmán, The Eagle and the Serpent, 1928	p. 105
Venustiano Carranza, The Agrarian Law, January 6, 1915	p. 109
Casa del Obrero Mundial, The Pact with Carranza and the Establishment of the Red Battalions, 1915	p. 112
Eduardo Iturbide, A Counterrevolutionary Governs the Federal District, 1914	p. 114
Luis García Pimentel, The Oligarchy's Perspective, 1912	p. 116
Francisca García Ortiz, Speech to the Feminist Congress in Yucatán, 1916	p. 117
The Revolution's Achievements	p. 121
Constitutional Convention, The Constitution of 1917: Article 27, 1917	p. 121
Constitutional Convention, The Constitution of 1917: The Labor Provisions of Article 123, 1917	p. 126
Rosalie Evans, Letters from Mexico, 1920-1923	p. 129
International Ramifications	p. 133
Henry Lane Wilson, Ten Tragic Days, 1913	p. 134
Edith O'Shaughnessy, A Diplomats Wife, 1914	p. 137
Walter Hines Page, The Zimmermann Telegram, 1917	p. 139
Charles F. Simon, Testimony in Support of His Claim against the Republic of Mexico, 1919	p. 140
Marion Letcher, American, British, and Mexican Investment in Mexico, 1911	p. 144
The United States-Mexican Commission, The Bucareli Agreements, 1923	p. 148
Appendixes
A Chronology of the Mexican Revolution (1810-1940)	p. 152
Questions for Consideration	p. 154
Selected Bibliography	p. 156
Index	p. 161
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