The day-to-day experiences of the American soldiers fighting in the Mexican War
James McCaffrey examines America's first foreign war, the Mexican War, through the day-to-day experiences of the American soldier in battle, in camp, and on the march. With remarkable sympathy, humor, and grace, the author fills in the historical gaps of one war while rising issues now found to be strikingly relevant to this nation's modern military concerns.
James McCaffrey is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Houston-Downtown and is the author of This Band of Heroes: Granbury's Texas Brigade, C.S.A.
What People are Saying About This
From the Publisher
"McCaffrey tells us a great deal about what it was like to be a soldier in the Mexican War, drawing his information from a wide range of unpublished and published soldier writings. . . . well-researched, well-written, and insightful."
-Georgia Historical Quarterly,
"A significant new contribution to the field...based upon extensive research...the reader gets an interesting profile of the average American soldier, and a vivid picture of the war...a noteworthy achievement."
-Register of the Kentucky Historical Society,
"An imaginative undertaking that examines racial hierarchy in the U.S. Southwest broadly and New Mexico particularly."-Echeverria,
"Focuses on the racial attitudes that shaped the identity of Mexican Americans. In this work, she terns to the 19th century to address the perennial issues of "whiteness" and the timely question of who is a citizen. Her well-researched historical case study analyzes the Mexican "racial" community from 1848, when the region was a territory and ceded to the US after the Mexican War, to 1912, when New Mexico became a state."-Choice,
"Presents a concise and compelling story of the development of Mexican American racial identity in the United States."-Continuity and Change
