Paul Garner has written an outstanding political assessment of the regime of Porfirio Díaz, who ruled Mexico from 1876 to 1911 (except for the Manuel González interval, 1880 – 84). This is the first English-language political biography since the 1932 journalistic narrative by Carleton Beals. To appreciate Garner’s accomplishment, readers should know the constraints imposed by the publisher: the book is one of a series entitled “Profiles of Power,” aimed at classroom readers. As a result, Garner had to focus generally on the politics of the individual and to limit his text to 230 pages. Neither of these factors do damage to the persuasive interpretation, but both leave ample room for a full-length biography of Díaz and additional cultural studies (especially of the rituals of Porfirian rule) of his government.
Díaz remains an enigmatic ruler. Garner set out to evaluate this leader with two primary goals: to incorporate the historiography...
