Description
Book SynopsisIn the mid-1930s the Mexican government expropriated millions of acres of land from hundreds of US property owners as part of President Cardenas' land redistribution program. This title analyzes this conflict at the local, regional, national, and international levels in a nuanced way that combines social, economic, political, and cultural history.
Trade Review“
The Agrarian Dispute is a tour de force. John J. Dwyer ties international relations and domestic politics in Mexico together in an exciting new way, demonstrating that the expropriation of United States–owned land by the Cárdenas regime was of crucial importance for the relationship between the two countries, Mexico’s overall economic development, and agrarian reform. Few scholars cover both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border as well as Dwyer does.”—
Ben Fallaw, author of
Cárdenas Compromised: The Failure of Reform in Postrevolutionary Yucatán“
The Agrarian Dispute will force scholars to reconsider U.S.-Mexican relations during the Cárdenas years. John J. Dwyer shows how powerful domestic and international events were affected by the actions of ‘subalterns’ and how Mexico, a relatively weak power, deftly bested the United States with creative diplomatic tactics. He also makes a convincing case that the U.S. response to Mexico’s oil expropriation in 1938 was largely determined by the earlier controversy over the land confiscations.”—
Timothy J. Henderson, author of
The Worm in the Wheat: Rosalie Evans and Agrarian Struggle in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley of Mexico, 1906–1927Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The Interplay between Domestic Affairs and Foreign Relations 1
Part I. Domestic Origins of an International Conflict
1. The Roots of the Agrarian Dispute 17
2.
El asalto a las tierras y la huelga de los sentados: How Local Agency Shaped Agrarian Reform in the Mexicali Valley 44
3. The Expropriation of American-Owned Land in Baja California: Political, Economic, Social, and Cultural Factors 77
4. Domestic Politics and the Expropriation of American-Owned Land in the Yaqui Valley 103
5. The Sonoran Reparto: Where Domestic and International Forces Meet 138
Part II. Diplomatic Resolution of an International Conflict
6. The End of U.S. Intervention in Mexico: The Roosevelt Administration Accommodates Mexico City 159
7. Diplomatic Weapons of the Weak: Cárdenas's Administration Outmaneuvers Washington 194
8. The 1941 Global Settlement: The End of the Agrarian Dispute and the Start of a New Era in U.S.-Mexican Relations 232
Conclusion: Moving away from Balkanized History 267
Notes 85
Bibliography 343
Index 371
