The General and the Jaguar: Pershing's Hunt for Pancho Villa: A True Story of Revolution and Revenge

by Eileen Welsome

Overview

Pulitzer Prize winner Welsome's gripping, panoramic story reveals a vicious surprise attack on the United States and America's hunt for the perpetrator, Pancho Villa.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316069588
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	02/28/2009
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	958,668
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Eileen Welsome is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist. Her first book, The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War, was the recipient of two PEN awards.

Table of Contents

Prologue     1
The Attack
A Microbe Challenges an Elephant     13
A Diverting Brute     31
Veracruz     42
Downhill     49
Tell President Wilson to Save You     62
Only One Chance to Die     71
Rumors, Warnings, and Telegrams     81
Villa Is Coming Tonight, for Sure     97
The Fiddler Plays     108
Very Unnatural Deaths     136
The Hunt
To the End of the Furrow     155
Sunburn, Frostbite, and Blisters     173
Pershing's Indigestion     197
No One to Seek For     225
Revenge and Revival
Gasoline Baths and Confessions     237
Jerked to Jesus     249
A Ripe Pear     260
A Terrible Blunder     270
Whore Dust and a Rabid Dog     287
An Old Colonel     299
A Reborn Town     304
Victims or Bandits?     311
Death Comes for the Horsemen     318
Acknowledgments     336
Casualties of the Columbus Raid     338
Chronology     340
Notes     341
Selected Bibliography     387
Index     394

Editorial Reviews

"The General and The Jaguar explores the volatile issues of nationalism, patriotism, and revolutionary fervor. It also looks at the dangers of one country sending a military expedition--in pursuit of a presumed, singular threat to national security--into another hostile, foreign country for the purposes of removing a menace who has terrorized citizens. It also, by the way, examines the ways in which militarization of a border can cause unanticipated problems. Yes, Welsome has written brilliantly about an incident that occurred in the early twentieth century. But The General and The Jaguar seems strangely relevant to the early twenty-first century. See what you think."—BookLoons

BookLoons

“A fast-moving and engrossing narrative. . . . [Welsome] provides a highly readable and informative account, which also offers interesting portraits of some key figures in the Mexican Revolution.”—Booklist

Booklist

“Welsome lets the story—of an attack by foreign forces on U.S. soil, the racial and political turmoil it caused, the expense it necessitated and the frustration it provoked—tell itself. It's a good story, even if it sounds painfully familiar.”—Charles Matthews, Houston Chronicle

Houston Chronicle - Charles Matthews

“A well-paced narrative account. . . . The skillful manner in which Welsome chronicles these events should enthrall anyone interested in this period.”—New Mexico Magazine

New Mexico Magazine

“A well-paced narrative account. . . . The skillful manner in which Welsome chronicles these events should enthrall anyone interested in this period.”—New Mexico Magazine

New Mexico Magazine

“A fast-moving and engrossing narrative. . . . [Welsome] provides a highly readable and informative account, which also offers interesting portraits of some key figures in the Mexican Revolution.”—Booklist

Booklist

“Welsome lets the story—of an attack by foreign forces on U.S. soil, the racial and political turmoil it caused, the expense it necessitated and the frustration it provoked—tell itself. It’s a good story, even if it sounds painfully familiar.”—Charles Matthews, Houston Chronicle

— Charles Matthews

Houston Chronicle

“This is the most engaging narrative of the events leading up to the Columbus incident and Pershing’s Punitive Expedition that followed that I have read. . . . Welsome’s The General and the Jaguar reads like many of the more engaging military histories of the U.S. Civil War . . . and will thus be of most interest to the general public and military history buffs. Welsome’s fascinating portraits of both military leaders and everyday citizens might also work well in introductory courses on the Mexican revolution and U.S.-Latin American relations.”—Andrae M. Marak, The Americas

— Andrae M. Marak

The Americas