Description
Book SynopsisA historical account of concepts of honor in Mexico during the mid-to-late nineteenth century and the role of those concepts in the development of the public sphere.
Trade Review“Piccato has produced a first-rate monograph of the period he previously studied, and his analysis of the press at the end of the nineteenth century, the muzzling of the press by Diaz after 1885, and the legal shift in the definition of honor and defamation is first class. The book is engaging, well researched, and well written, and is an interesting read.” - Robert Jackson,
H-Net Reviews“Piccato’s work is an important contribution to our understanding of honor in nineteenth-century Mexico and how shifting conceptions of honor were tied to class, gender, and modernity. In particular, his discussion of honor as a commodity—as something that could be produced, accumulated, and exchanged—elucidates an understanding of how honor did not serve a merely ideological function; it also served as a way to re-create and reinforce class and gender behaviors during a period when Mexico was rapidly changing.” - Nicole Sanders,
Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos“
The Tyranny of Opinion will likely become the definitive historical work on republican honor in Mexico and one of the most important works on republican honor and the public sphere in Latin America. With chapters on everyone from elite public men to lower-class women, the book provides exceptionally broad coverage.”—
Robert M. Buffington, author of
Criminal and Citizen in Modern Mexico“This masterful exploration of the constitution of the public sphere joins questions of gender, representational practices, class, and politics in a fascinating mosaic. It is a delightful read and an illuminating work of historical ethnography, which reveals much about the difficult century between 1810 and 1910. It will help set new research agendas for modern Mexican history.”—
Eric Van Young, author of
The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Mexican Struggle for Independence, 1810–1821“Piccato has produced a first-rate monograph of the period he previously studied, and his analysis of the press at the end of the nineteenth century, the muzzling of the press by Diaz after 1885, and the legal shift in the definition of honor and defamation is first class. The book is engaging, well researched, and well written, and is an interesting read.” -- Robert Jackson * H-Net Reviews *
“Piccato’s work is an important contribution to our understanding of honor in nineteenth-century Mexico and how shifting conceptions of honor were tied to class, gender, and modernity. In particular, his discussion of honor as a commodity—as something that could be produced, accumulated, and exchanged—elucidates an understanding of how honor did not serve a merely ideological function; it also served as a way to re-create and reinforce class and gender behaviors during a period when Mexico was rapidly changing.” -- Nicole Sanders * Mexican Studies *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments xi
Introduction. Honor and the Public Sphere in the Republican Era 1
Part I. Travails of Opinion
1. Setting the Rules of Freedom: The Trajectory of the Press Jury 27
2. Representing Public Opinion: Combat Journalists and the Business of Honor 63
Part II. Tumultuous Opinion
3. "The Word of My Conscience": Eloquence and the Foreign Debt 100
4. Breaking Lamps and Expanding the Public Sphere: Students and
Populacho against the
Deuda Inglesa 129
Part III. Taming Opinion
5. Honor and the State: Reputation as a Juridical Good 159
6. "A Horrible Web of Insults": The Everyday Defense of Honor 188
7. "One Does Not Talk to the Dead": The Romero-Verástegui Affair and the Apogee of Dueling in Mexico 220
Conclusions 254
Notes 263
Sources Cited 337
Index 371
