Mexico: Biography of Power

If you like history and want to know what makes the country of Mexico tick, this book presents all the fascinating background one could want. I wish I had read it when it was published 27 years ago.

I prefer this excellent history of Mexico to other published histories for many reasons, not the least of which is that it was written by a leading Mexican intellectual, in Spanish. Here we have an insider's perspective, a history written by someone who not only knows it first hand, but actually FEELS it. You won't find that insightful, intuitive quality in the books written by Fehrenbach or Miller. In English translation, the quality of the language is superb. From the preface, through the first few chapters, you become aware of the author's prodigious analytical and rhetorical skills. He also commits to maintaining a relatively swift narrative, and the text never disintegrates into dry academia. The main body of the text concentrates on the lives of Mexico's many leaders from 1810 to 1994, but it would be wrong to suggest that this is the TOPIC of the book. Really, the book attempts to define what it means to be Mexican through the ambitions, successful or otherwise, of the people strong or lucky enough to lead the country. It covers all of Mexican history, roughly from conquest to modern times, but with relatively less emphasis on the Spanish colonial period. And though it isn't a feature topic in the content of the book, the author skillfully introduces us to the foundation of independent Mexico through the cultural, religious and economic history of New Spain. Here's an insightful history of Mexico that reads beautifully and entertains as well as instructs. While not exactly beach reading, I would highly recommend this book for people with more than a casual (tourist) interest in Mexican history.

I'm a math teacher in a school that is 45% Hispanic. My kids good naturedly taunt me with "you took our land". We "pushed on" that one day and it turns out none of us knew much about Mexico. I stopped at a book store on the way home and found this to be the only offering on Mexico's history. I lucked out. It turns out I now know more about Mexico's history that my students. I'm near pg 180 but left the book in my classroom and we're on winter break. Several of my students have asked to read the book when I'm done. So, I'm here killing two birds with one stone: I'll get a copy to read over break (I marked my copy up) and I'll have one to loan out after break. It's a fascinating book, very well written, covering the history of Mexico from Cortez until 1996 and making frequent references to pre-Columbian Mexico along the way. Having read as far as I have I'm thinking I'll need book(s) on Central and S.America when I'm done with this. It's terrific. I highly recommend this book.

Well written, interesting history of a nation coming of age.

An engaging quasi biography of the Mexican caudillos. I had no idea of the bloody history of Mexico, its reformations, the revolutions. The book is very well written and well worth reading.