Disorder and Progress: Bandits, Police, and Mexican Development

by Paul J. Vanderwood

This reissue of Prof. Vanderwood's groundbreaking study-available again for the first time in a decade-examines bandits, police, and Mexican politics as a whole, showing how different groups used the agents of order and disorder to serve their interests. Originally published in 1981, Disorder and Progress was subsequently revised and updated in 1992. Added to the enlarged 1992 edition and included here in this reissue are the entirely new introduction, material on the period of the independence wars and on Pancho Villa, and an updated bibliography. This book also incorporates additional data and interpretations regarding bandits and instruments for maintaining order that were included in the 1992 edition. Maps and illustrations will help readers appreciate the issues under discussion.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1981

About the author

Paul J. Vanderwood is Professor Emeritus of Mexican history at San Diego State University. He is the author of several books including Satan's Playground: Mobsters and Movie Stars at America's Greatest Gaming Resort; Juan Soldado: Rapist, Murderer, Martyr, Saint; The Power of God against the Guns of Government: Religious Upheaval in Mexico at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century; Disorder and Progress: Bandits, Police, and Mexican Development; and Border Fury: A Picture Postcard Record of Mexico’s Revolution and U.S. War Preparedness, 1910–1917.