Robert Woodmansee Herr’s reconstruction of his family’s life in Mexico during thirty years of revolutionary upheaval is fascinating and important. Herr’s father, Irving, and his wife Luella, supervised the Cubo mine near Guanajuato between 1902 and 1932. Robert Herr and his brothers, John and Richard, were born in Cubo. Irving’s correspondence, Luella’s letters and diaries, and other family sources are reproduced in length, and form the core of the book. Robert Herr provides historical background, reminiscences, and some commentary; his youngest brother, Richard Herr, who was born in 1922, provides additional material and the oversight of a trained historian.
Fear for personal safety led to Luella’s returning with her children to the United States on several occasions and, between 1915 and 1920, to the entire family’s leaving Mexico. Worrying far less about the ideology of the revolution than the resulting absence of law enforcement, however, Irving and Luella made it...
