Malcontents, Rebels, & Pronunciados: The Politics of Insurrection in Nineteenth Century Mexico, by Will Fowler, editor

Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012. Pp. lii, 300. Maps, tables, chron., notes, biblio., index. $40.00 paper. ISBN: 0803225423.

A collection of essays on the politics of the tumultuous fifty years that followed Mexican independence.

Prof. Fowler (St. Andrews), opens this volume with a long, thoughtful introduction on the nature of insurrection in Mexico during the fifty years following its independence, laying out some patterns into which the numerous uprisings, coups, and civil wars fell.  There follow a dozen essays by scholars from both sides of the border on particular insurgencies, regional and military strong men, the reactions of the Church and local elites to insurrectionary or putschist actions, and, of course, the French intervention.  Some essays cover very narrow periods, such as Felipe de la Garza’s coup attempt of 1822 or the socialist uprising of 1868, while others cover much broader periods, such as the surveys of pronunciamentos at Vera Cruz or at Tlaxcala, or the careers of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (which also covers events of the Texas Revolution and the American-Mexican War) or Mariano Paredes.  The text is supplemented by a useful chronology of uprisings, coup attempts, and rebellions, plus several tables. 

A volume in the UNP series "The Mexican Experience,” Malcontents, Rebels, & Pronunciados is valuable book for anyone who wishes to know more about Mexico in this period than the usual coverage of Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana and Benito Juarez, both of whom are but part of the story.

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