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More About This Textbook
Overview
Mexico is a country of fascinating contrasts--glorious history and tumultuous politics, extraordinary culture and desperate poverty, ancient traditions and rapid modernization. Yet despite the growing curiosity about Mexico due to increased trade and commerce, mostly resulting from NAFTA, as well as increased tourism and immigration, there is presently no up-to-date, accessible history of Mexico for general readers.
The Oxford History of Mexico, edited by Michael Meyer and William Beezley is a comprehensive, lucidly written, and fully current narrative history by twenty of the most esteemed historians of Mexico writing today. Drawing on radical changes in scholarship on Mexico over the past 15 years, The Oxford History of Mexico covers all aspects of the rich history of Mexico from precolonial times to the present. Exploring politics, religion, technology, modernization, ethnicity, colonialism, ecology, the arts, mass media, and popular culture, The Oxford History of Mexico provides a wealth of information for all readers interested in this remarkable country.
Fully illustrated, with black-and-white photos throughout and a sixteen page color insert, suggestions for future reading, an index, and a glossary, this is the fullest and most engaging history of Mexico available today.
Editorial Reviews
Library Journal
During the last 20 years, Mexican history has been reinterpreted and reevaluated. Meyer (history, emeritus, Univ. of Arizona; coauthor of The Course of Mexican History) and Beezley (history, Univ. of Arizona; coauthor of El Gran Pueblo) have compiled 20 previously unpublished essays by experts who explore Mexico from precolonial times to the present. Each expert contributes a chapter on his or her time period, and the essays reflect the latest research (as opposed to most single-author textbooks, which tend to summarize the studies of others). Several of the authors are Mexican, adding a dimension not often found in the writing of Americans on Mexico. Examining the country with new and different approaches, the contributors challenge traditional historical concepts on a variety of issues. This volume will be a valuable addition to most academic libraries as well as many public libraries with collections on Latin America and Mexico.--Mark L. Grover, Brigham Young Univ. Provo, UT Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\Kirkus Reviews
A comprehensive, generously illustrated chronicle of Mexican history from conqueror Cortés to singer Selena. Following their lucid introduction, editors Meyer (History/Univ. of Arizona) and Beezley (History/Univ. of Arizona) divide their engaging text into five major chronological sections, offering a total of 20 essays written by an impressive cast of experts on a wide variety of subjects. They begin with an analysis of the 16th-century Spanish customs and cultural assumptions that Cortés and his men brought with them to the New World. A fine chapter on the native Mayan, Aztec, and other Mesoamerican cultures follows. Next is a description of the collision of the two worlds that reveals how Cortés was able to succeed against sheer numbers because of his ability to divide the Indians politically. Subsequent chapters deal with the growth of New Spain, the uniquely Mexican character that Catholicism assumed in the region ("the combination of African and native traditions led to interesting religious forms"), and the struggle for Mexican independence (achieved in1821). Although Meyer and Beezley maintain a steady chronological progression, they also offer chapters on such subjects as disease and ecology, relations with the US, and the arts (especially interesting are the accounts of Diego Rivera and of Mexico's other celebrated muralists). All the contributors are particularly adept at viewing well-known events from Mexican perspectives (the Battle of the Alamo, for example, consumes barely a sentence in Christon Archer's damning evaluation of President Santa Anna as "the principal inhabitant even today of Mexico's black pantheon of thosewhofailed the nation"). The disastrous 1846-48 war with the US receives its due, as do the exploits of Juárez, Maximilian, Zapata, and Villa. Later essays deal with the emergence of Mexico as a modern state and its struggles to develop an economy sufficiently robust to provide for its impoverished segments. A rich mosaic of culture, history, economics, and politics. (180 b&w photos, 16 pages color, not seen)Product Details
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Meet the Author
Michael Meyer is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Arizona and the author of several books on Mexican history, including (with William Sherman and Susan Deeds) The Course of Mexican History. William Beezley is Professor of History at The University of Arizona and coauthor of El Gran Pueblo. They both live in Tucson.
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