As part of the multivolume Historia de la revolución mexicana edited by Luis González, this study displays most of the virtues as well as the weaknesses that characterize the series. The book is essentially a monograph on the experiment with “socialist education” under Cárdenas, and its relationship with other volumes in the series is not entirely clear. Why, for instance, should education have been singled out for special treatment in the Cárdenas years, and not in the volumes on the 1920-34 period? This reviewer would be the last to deny the importance of the “socialist education” episode, but in a general history of this kind it should be firmly located in an overall interpretation of the Mexican 1930s. The author seems to be aware of this (“It would be hazardous to evaluate the Cardenas regime in its totality . . . ,” p. 89), but she does not really resolve the problem.
This apart, the book is a useful account of the politics of Mexican education in its most controversial period. Victoria Lerner has produced a balanced synthesis of the existing literature, supplemented by new research in newspaper files and archives. While justifiably skeptical about the ideological sophistication of most advocates of “socialist education,” and insisting on the lack of resources that seriously hampered the program’s application, she recognizes the achievements of many dedicated teachers and administrators who made immense sacrifices to bring basic schooling and social change to many isolated communities. Critics of the program, from both the right and the extreme left, failed to appreciate the practical urgency of many of the actual reforms being applied, and if the ideology of the socialist school was confused, it nevertheless played an important part in the totality of the Cardenista reform program. The book is in general well written and, in common with other volumes in the series, is profusely illustrated with contemporary photographs and cartoons.
