Content area
Full Text
(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)
Douglas W. Richmond and Sam W. Haynes (eds.), The Mexican Revolution: Conflict and Consolidation, 1910-1940 (College Station, TX : Texas A&M University Press , 2013), pp. x+251, $35.00, hb.
Reviews
The Mexican Revolution of 1910 overthrew the dictatorship of General Porfirio Díaz and replaced it with generals who created a powerful political party, promised sweeping social reforms and slowly rebuilt the economy. The essays published in this volume focus on the impact of the revolution along the border between Mexico and the United States, and the process of political consolidation from 1920 to 1940.
Since independence, the economy of northern Mexico and the United States has been intertwined, and investment by US companies significantly increased during the Porfiriato. Some historians have viewed US investment as disruptive and an important cause of the revolution. Miguel Ãngel González-Quiroga's study of the city of Monterrey, an industrial hub near the border, suggests otherwise. Elites and workers welcomed US companies, favoured prosperity and stability over revolution, and praised US Consul Mark Hanna for his humanitarian efforts during the conflict.
Don M. Coerver's essay summarises hostilities along the Texas-Mexico border and Governor Oscar Colquitt's disputes with Washington over funding and deployment of the Texas Rangers and the Texas National Guard. The border region was a significant theatre of war, an area of political intrigue and a smuggling corridor. US troops stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso periodically clashed with revolutionaries, and Guard and Ranger units policed South Texas. At one point, Colquitt almost lost federal funding when the Guard was accused...