The U.S.-Mexican War (Vol. 1&2): Campaigns, politics, and peace in the Mexican–American War: Palo Alto, Buena Vista, California, and Chapultepec

by Justin Harvey Smith

This two-volume edition was written by an American historian Justin Harvey Smith, specialist on the Mexican-American War. For his exceptional work Smith was awarded with Pulitzer Prize for History.Aseveryone understands, the conflict with Mexico has been almost entirely eclipsed by the greater wars following it. But in the field of thought mere size does not count for much; and while the number of troops and the lists of casualties give the present subject little comparative importance, it has ample grounds for claiming attention.
Contents:
Mexico and the Mexicans
The Political Education of Mexico
The Relations between the United States and Mexico, 1825–1843
The Relations between the United States and Mexico, 1843–1846
The Mexican Attitude on the Eve of War
The American Attitude on the Eve of War
The Preliminaries of the Conflict
Palo Alto and Resaca de Guerrero
The United States Meets the Crisis
The Chosen Leaders Advance
Taylor Sets out for Saltillo
Monterey
Saltillo, Parras, and Tampico
Santa Fe
Chihuahua
The California Question
The Conquest of California
The Genesis of Two Campaigns
Santa Anna Prepares to Strike
Buena Vista
Behind the Scenes at Mexico
Vera Cruz
Cerro Gordo
Puebla
On to the Capital
Contreras and Churubusco
Negotiations
Molino del Rey, Chapultepec and Mexico
Final Military Operations
The Naval Operations
The Americans as Conquerors
Peace
The Finances of the War
The War in American Politics
The Foreign Relations of the War

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, War

1599 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 6, 2012

About the author

Justin Harvey Smith was a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian specializing in the Mexican-American War.

Reviews

[Dave Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

A racist but militarily accurate account of the War with Mexico

In my effort to read all of the Pulitzer Prize Winning novels, biographies, histories, plays and poetry collections as part of the #pulitzerprizereadingchallenge is to distance myself from contemporary thinking and allow the the biases of the time in context of the work. That was very difficult while reading this as the writer is not only a triumphal nationalist but obviously extremely racist with very insulting opinions of both the indigenous as well as the mestizos who made up the Mexican population. To him they were stupid, lazy, self important, unreasonable and wholly unworthy of the rich land they called home and should have been grateful that American settlers and , in their wake, our soldiers, flag and business people will make better use of the land and resources. In fact, his whole conclusion, trite nationalism indicative of his era, #justinharveysmith was not only making the rationale for a war that conquered not just #texas but all of the #Mexican north, our American #southwest that gave us the whole of #newmexico , #colorado , #utah, #colorado , #arizona , #nevada and #california . That the westernmost of these states were about to yield up an incalculable amount of #gold and #silver to make #columbus and #pizarro feel inadequate is barely touched on as, in Smith's view, the #unitedstates was bringing civilization to a barbaric people, barely acknowledging the fact that empires had resigned for thousands of years in Mexico with complex societies, religion, culture and architecture that had thrived long before Europeans had figured out how to sail boats.

This is why I could not give five stars because the stellar military history is overshadowed by the gushing propaganda at the heart of the justification. If Smith had just chosen to be an historian rather than a virulent imperialist, he would have written a military history for the ages.

To his credit, his level of detail concerning the campaigns in Texas, Utah and California that served as preludes to the #mexicanamerican war is astounding and better places in context and perhaps suggests a higher and more long term level of national coordination than what more histories suggest in our stumbling into empire. History has not so far revealed a detailed and coordinated plan to make the United States what it is today as our messy multi-tiered democracy and constitutional separation of powers lends itself to uncoordination. But, as this book reveals, #manifestdestiny was more than a catchy vision statement and the #monroedoctrine much more than a guiding principle made clear with all that had to take place in advance of the war with Mexico so that a pieced together, hodge lodge of state militias and a tiny Army and Navy could tear off half a nation against a well defended nation. A fascinating study that, despite the triumphalism, is a masterful work of military and political history in and oft overlooked period of the American story.
#readtheworldchallenge #readtheworld #globalreadingchallenge #americanhistory #unitedstateshistory #mexicanhistory

[William Whalen · Rating 1 out of 5]

First, I have to offer a disclaimer. To say I finished reading this book is not close to accurate. In fact, I only read the preface and chapter 1. I could not stomach reading anymore of the racial hatred presented in the first 30 pages. The writer describes the native Mexicans as looking like their donkeys. He states that they were lazy and incapable of learning. This is just the beginning of the vitriol that spewed from the author's pen. I would like to think this book an outlier but it won the 1919 Pulitzer for history. You have to remember it was in this time period that widely popular "Birth of a Nation" depicted the KKK riding in to save the day. Unfortunately, much of the imagery of Mexicans remains with us which some political parties capitalize on to ,mobilize their base. I gave the book 1 star begrudgingly as it is the lowest ranking possible.