Description
Book SynopsisIn 1910 Mexicans rebelled against an imperfect dictatorship; after 1940 they ended up with what some called the perfect dictatorship. This book brings together historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists to offer a radical new understanding of the emergence and persistence of the modern Mexican state.
Trade Review“[A]n invaluable resource for any nonspecialist seeking a rigorous and in-depth consideration of the topic. . . . A necessary addition to any respectable collection on Latin American history or 20th-century politics. . . . Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” -- J. M. Rosenthal * Choice *
“This timely edited volume explores how the country that launched the first social revolution of the twentieth century became one of the world’s most unequal and least democratic societies. Its regional and methodological sweep is impressive. Taken together, the eighteen chapters challenge the conventional wisdom in many ways. Graduate students in particular will mine this volume for promising leads; indeed, this book will likely inspire a wave of interdisciplinary research on the period.” -- Stephen E. Lewis * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *
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Dictablanda is a must read for students of Mexican history and politics, and provides a useful synthesis of the emerging works on this under-researched period" -- Amelia M. Kiddle * Labour/Le Travail *
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Dictablanda’s publication marks a watershed in the study of postrevolutionary Mexico. … The collection’s theoretical pluralism and thematic diversity defies easy characterization." -- Ben Fallaw * The Americas *
"[T]his volume brings together important case studies and contributes to a debate about how to conceptualize the era. It is essential reading for scholars of post-revolutionary Mexico." -- Louise E. Walker * Hispanic American Historical Review *
"Combining two generations of scholarship in the historiography of postrevolutionary Mexico, this collection of essays is a masterpiece. It constitutes the first-ever effort to study in detail the heyday of Mexico’s official revolutionary party from the oil expropriation of 1938 to the government’s massacre of student protesters at Mexico City’s Tlatelolco Square in 1968....it should be required reading for anyone interested in twentieth-century Latin America." -- Jurgen Buchenau * The Historian *
Table of ContentsPreface / Paul Gillingham vii Acknowledgments xv Glossary of Institutions and Acronyms xvii Introduction: The Paradoxes of Revolution / Paul Gillingham and Benjamin T. Smith 1 High and Low Politics 45 1. The End of the Mexican Revolution? From Cardenas to Aveila Camacho, 1937-1941 / Alan Knight 47 2. Intransigence, Anticommunism, and Reconciliation: Church/State Relations in Transition / Roberto Blancarte 70 3. Camouflaging the State: The Army and the Limits of Hegemony in PRIista Mexico, 1940-1960 / Thomas Rath 89 4. Strongmen and State Weakness / Rogelio Hernandez Rodriguez 108 5. Tropical Passion in the Desert: Gonzalo N. Santos and Local Elections in Nothern San Luis Potosi, 1943-1958 / Wil G. Pansters 126 6. "We Don't Have Arms, but We Do Have Balls": Fraud, Violience, and Popular Agency in Elections / Paul Gillingham 149 Work and Resource Regulation 173 7. The Golden Age of Charrismo: Workers, Braceros, and the Political Machinery of Postrevolutionary Mexico / Michael Snodgrass 175 8. The Forgotten Jaramillo: Building a Social Base of Support for Authoritarianism in Rural Mexico / Gladys McCormick 196 9. Community, Crony Capitalism, and Fortress Conservation in Mexican Forests / Christopher R. Boyer 217 10. Advocate or Cacica? Guadalupe Urzua Flores: Modernizer and Peasant Political Leader in Jalisco / Maria Teresa Fernandez Aceves 236 11. Building a State on the Cheap: Taxation, Social Movements, and Politics / Benjamin T. Smith 255 Culture and Ideology 277 12. The End of Revolutionary Anthropology? Notes on Indigenismo / Guillermo de la Pena 279 13. Cooling to Cinema and Warming to Television: State Mass Media Policy, 1940-1964 / Andrew Paxman 299 14. Pistoleros, Ley Fuga, and Uncertainty in Public Debates about Murder in Twentieth-Century Mexico / Pablo Piccato 321 15. Rural Education, Political Radicalism, and Normalista Identity in Mexico after 1940 / Tanalis Padilla 341 16. The Rise of a "National Student Problem" in 1956 / Jaime M. Pensado 360 Final Comments. Contextualizing the Regime: What 1938-1968 Tells Us about Mexico, Power, and Latin America's Twentieth Century / Jeffrey W. Rubin 379 Select Bibliography 397 Contributors 427 Index 429
