The 12 essays and the theoretical/historiographical introduction that comprise this excellent edited collection analyze popular responses to nation building in Mexico, from the beginning of the independence era until the dawn of the 1910 revolution. The essays are divided into two sections. The first contains studies of the urban poor and their resistance to vagrancy laws and other elite efforts at social control, four examining Mexico City and one dealing with Querétaro. The remaining seven contributions deal with rural communities’ struggles to retain some control over land and resources threatened by the liberal state’s efforts at desamortización, with geographic coverage of the states of Veracruz, Oaxaca, Mexico, Yucatán, Querétaro, and Chihuahua. All but one of the essays came out of a 2001 doctoral seminar at El Colegio de México, directed by editor Romana Falcón. The authors include three professors and ten advanced doctoral students — although some of the...

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