Everyday life and politics in nineteenth century Mexico
Subtitle: men, women, and war
By: Mark Wasserman.
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: Diálogos; Diálogos (Albuquerque, N.M.)
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Albuquerque
Language: eng
Number of pages: 248
Subjects: War and society -- Mexico -- History -- 19th century; Regionalism -- Mexico -- History -- 19th century; Mexico -- History -- 19th century
Description: In this new and masterful synthesis, Wasserman shows the link between ordinary men and women-preoccupied with the demands of feeding, clothing, and providing shelter-and the elites' desire for a stable political order and an expanding economy. The three key figures of nineteenth-century Mexico-Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, Benito Juarez, and Porfirio Diaz-are engagingly reinterpreted. But the emphasis in this book is on the struggle of the common people to retain control over their everyday lives. Concerns central to village life were the appointment of police officials, imposition of taxes on Indians, the trustworthiness of local priests, and changes inland ownership. Communities often followed their leaders into one political camp or another-and even into war-out of loyalty. Excesses in partisan politics and regional antagonisms gave rise to nearly eighty years of war, resulting in the nation's economic stagnation between 1821 and 1880 and the mass migration of women from the countryside to the city. The industrialization of urban employment forever altered gender relations. During wartime, women acted as the supply, transportation, and medical corps of the Mexican armies. Moreover, with greater frequency than has been known, women fought as soldiers in the nineteenth century. This account of Mexico from Independence to the Revolution combines lively explanations of social history, political and economic change, and gender relations. - Publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-238) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Part I. The Age of Troubles; title: Antonio L6pez de Santa Anna; title: Timeline; title: Chapter i. Everyday Life, 1821-46: Tradition and Turmoil; title: Chapter 2. The Politics of Disorder, 1821-45; title: Chapter 3. The Origins of Underdevelopment; title: Chapter 4. The Disastrous War; title: Part II. The Age of Civil Wars; title: Benito Juarez; title: Timeline; title: Chapter 5. Politics and Economy in Civil War, 1848-61; title: Chapter 6. Foreign Intervention and Reconstruction, 1861-67; title: Chapter 7. Everyday Life, 1849-76: The Impact of War and Reform; title: Part III. The Age of Order and Progress; title: Porfirio Diaz; title: Timeline; title: Chapter 8. The Economy of Progress; title: Chapter 9. Everyday Life, 1877-191o: The Onslaught of Change; title: Chapter lo. The Politics of Order, 1877-191o; title: Epilogue; title: Selected Bibliography; title: Index.