We have lacked an analytical text treating twentieth-century Mexican history as a whole, and now we have one. This work by two distinguished Mexican scholars will complement our courses admirably, providing a perceptive inquiry and an appealing narrative for students to read and ponder. That same void motivated the authors to collaborate. In 1983, professors Luis Aguilar Camín and Lorenzo Meyer had begun to prepare such a work when they discovered the compatibility of their efforts and decided to collaborate. Mexico was deep in crisis at the time, and the country’s future was in doubt. A la sombra de la Revolución Mexicana, the basis of this translation, sought to explicate the historical roots of the dilemmas confronting the de la Madrid administration.
The text focuses on both the Mexican Revolution and the political and economic trajectory of postrevolutionary regimes. The prevailing economic models are analyzed and their political result is explored. A satisfying balance—a sense of searching, with hindsight, for explanations—is achieved. Treatment of the Mexican Revolution is quite detailed (pp. 1-70), since the authors intended to measure subsequent regimes in terms of expectations or demands emerging from that era. Political actors and localities that were often excluded from previous general histories are included here, to the satisfaction of Mexican specialists but perhaps to the dismay of our undergraduates, who, having no previous experience of this complex panoply of small towns and minor participants, may find the text overloaded. The real complexity of the Revolution and subsequent developments is illustrated by considering the many parties and factions that emerged.
The organization and political roles of both labor and campesinos are fully explored, as are the major opposition candidates and their constituencies in key elections. The authors’ admiration for the trajectory of the Cárdenas administration is evident, but they treat subsequent governments with empathy, clarifying the difficulties faced and the rationale for policy choice. The 1940-1968 era is treated as the “Mexican miracle,” while 1968-1984 is seen as its demise, or the “Mexican transition,” signaling the country’s painful departure from the social pact resulting from the Mexican Revolution. The authors’ explanation of the ensuing crisis is poignant. No projection of solutions is attempted. Statistics are utilized to good effect, especially in demonstrating Mexico’s plight under the López Portillo and de la Madrid terms.
The selected bibliography serves to reveal the books that have influenced Mexico’s historians of the contemporary era. There is rarely an error in the English text (although Jesús Guajardo murdered Zapata, not Carranza [p. 79]). The translator is so well attuned to U.S. speech that, like many of our students since the late 1960s, he utilizes “as” when “like” is called for.
