Is the Mexican Revolution Dead?

This is another attractive volume in the series of Borzoi Books on Latin America, edited by Lewis Hanke. Like others in the series it is intended for classroom use in Latin American history courses. This particular volume lends itself well to the “problem approach,” for the issue of the vitality of the Revolution is constantly kept alive, whatever the fate of the movement may be. Ross has included selections, pro and con, from such writers as Luis Cabrera, Howard F. Cline, Daniel Cosío Villegas, Jesús Silva Herzog, Leopoldo Zea, Moisés González Navarro, Pablo González Casanova, and Frank Brandenburg, and from Mexican politicians such as Adolfo López Mateos, Heriberto Jara, and Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama. The reading of these selections can lead to an animated classroom discussion on the course of Mexico’s recent history. Would I use it in my own courses? Yes. Is the Mexican Revolution dead? I am afraid Stanley Ross gives the secret away in the preface, where he joins the gloomy chorus intoning the Dies Irae. Perhaps the students should be advised to skip the introduction so they can make up their own minds. One editorial nit should be picked—Villegas is hyphenated before the two l’s, not between them.