Mexico: A History - Hardcover

Robert Ryal Miller

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0806119322 ISBN 13: 9780806119328

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985

Synopsis

This book is a skillful synthesis of Mexico's complex and colorful history from pre-Columbian times to the present. Utilizing his many years of research and teaching as well as his personal experience in Mexico, the author incorporates recent archaeological evidence, posits fresh interpretations, and analyzes such current problems as foreign debt, dependency on petroleum exports, and providing education and employment for an expanding population.

Combining political events and social history in a smooth narrative, the book describes events, places, and individuals, the daily life of peasants and urban workers, and touches on cultural topics, including architecture, art, literature, and music. As a special feature, each chapter contains excerpts from contemporary letters, books, decrees, or poems, firsthand accounts that lend historical flavor to the discussion of each era.

Mexico has an exciting history: several Indian civilizations; the Spanish conquest; three colonial centuries, during which there was a blending of Old World and New World cultures; a decade of wars for independence; the struggle of the young republic; wars with the United States and France; confrontation between the Indian president, Juárez, and the Austrian born emperor, Maximilian; a long dictatorship under Diaz; the Great Revolution that destroyed debt peonage, confiscated Church property, and reduced foreign economic power; and the recent drive to modernize through industrialization.

Mexico: A History will be an excellent college-level textbook and good reading for the thousands of Americans who have visited Mexico and those who hope to visit.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Ryal Miller was Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, Hayward. He was the author of Mexico: A History and Juan Alvarado: Governor of California, 1836–1842, also published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0806119322
• ISBN 13: 9780806119328
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384