Mexico

This accessible, sweeping survey of Mexican history, from pre-Columbian times to the present, introduces critical political and economic processes that have defined the country.

With ample maps and illustrations, along with historiographical inserts, Mexico is a guide from the earliest beginnings of a great nation down to the present day. This 2nd edition includes the following changes:

• 2 additional chapters, covering contemporary Mexico in the 21st century
• Fresh and substantial content about the cartels, criminal organizations, and the drug war
• The latest updates on pre-Columbian archaeological discoveries
• 20 new illustrations
• 10 inserts addressing historiography and referencing over 100 scholarly books
• An expanded and updated Suggestions for Further Reading section

To understand this complex and diverse land is to study the splendour of its pre-Columbian cultures, learn the legacies of a violent conquest, and appreciate the fluorescence of three centuries of viceregal Spanish rule. The struggle for independence, war with the United States, French Intervention, Benito Juárez, dictatorship under Porfirio Díaz, revolutionary upheaval under “Pancho” Villa – all are laid out in crystal-clear narrative.

Nor does Mexico shirk from addressing the darker side of history. Examining the corruption of 20th-century presidents, security apparatuses, and the PRI party, it explores the roots of present-day cartels and rising patterns of social violence.