The Mexican Revolution. Volume 1: Porfirians, Liberals, and Peasants

The Mexican Revolution #1

by Alan Knight

Alan Knight's comprehensive two-volume history of the Mexican Revolution presents a new interpretation of one of the world's most important revolutions. While it reflects the many facets of this complex and far-reaching historical subject it emphasises its fundamentally local, popular and agrarian character and locates it within a more general comparative context. Volume I analyses the Porfirian old regime - its politics and ideology and the patterns of socio-economic and, above all, agrarian change which the regime encouraged, within the dynamic context of global capitalism. it shows how these factors combined to produce the 1910 revolution, in which a resurgent urban liberalism joined in uneasy alliance with popular rebellion. Triumphant in 1911, the alliance collapsed in 1911–13, as the liberal experiment was undermined by popular revolt and finally terminated by counter-revolutionary coup. Volume 2 begins with the army counter-revolution of 1913, which ended the liberal experiment, installed military rule and gave renewed stimulus to revolutionary mobilisation, in which the forces of Villa and Zapata were prominent. Dr Knight recounts and analyses the major campaigns of 1913–14 and offers a fresh interpretation of the great schism of 1914–15, which divided the Revolution in its moment of victory, and which led to the final bout of civil war between the forces of Villa and Carranza. He considers the manner and significance of Carranza's ultimate triumph, and ponders the essential what had the Revolution changed?

Genres: History, Nonfiction

620 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 1986

Reviews

[Larissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW...it lives up to all of the hype, and then some. It took me months to finish this book - chipping away at five pages a day here, ten pages there - in large part because there's no wasted space or padding in its 490 pages. Every sentence is in the service of some particular argument or interpretation, and each section builds on what's come before. Consequently, The Mexican Revolution is dense in the best possible way - the way that a really great chocolate cake might be. Given this conceptual and organizational richness, I was particularly impressed by the pains that Knight took to avoid jargon and set forth his ideas in clear, elegant, often very witty prose. The attention to craftsmanship is inspiring, and it's clear why this book has set the standard for studies of the Mexican Revolution during the last quarter-century.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alan Knight taught me, so I am biased firmly in his favour. But this book is majestic. Intellectually, it's most important for its distinction between the 'serrano' and 'agrarista' rebels, between Villa and Zapata.

[mauro Gracia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno de lo mejores libros de la revolución mexicana que he leído.

[モーリー]

I won't rate it, because while it wasn't for me, that doesn't mean it's not a quality two volumes. It was just too academic for what I wanted and assumed more knowledge of Mexico than I have.