Peasants, Politics and the Formation of Mexico's National State: Guerrero, 1800-57 - Hardcover

Guardino, Peter F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0804725721 ISBN 13: 9780804725729

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 1996

Synopsis

This is a study of the role of peasants in the formation of the Mexican national state - from the end of the colonial era to the beginning of La Reforma, a moment in which liberalism became dominant in Mexican political culture. The book shows how Mexico's national political system was formed through local struggles and alliances that deeply involved elements of Mexico's impoverished rural masses, notably the peasants who took part in many of the local, regional, and national rebellions that characterised early-nineteenth-century politics. These rebellions were not battles over whether or not there was to be a state; they were contests over what the state was to be. The author focuses on the region of Guerrero, whose peasantry were deeply involved in the two most important broadly based revolts of the early nineteenth century: the War of Independence of 1810-21, and the 1853-55 Revolution of Ayutla, the rebellion that began La Reforma.

About this title

Review:

'This important book explores the connection between peasant grievances and the rise of federalist leaders of national stature ... This ... is a revisionist interpretation that radically departs from the view of post-indepence politcs as an intra-elite struggle between Liberal modernisers and Conservative traditionalists. For Guardino, the great division running through this period, cutting across ideological, cultural and social differences, was between centralism and federalism; between leaders who attempted to use the centre for reconstructing a neo-colonial, aristocratic order, and provincial leaders who fostered a popular constituency in order to protect and to enhance their regional autonomy.' Journal of Latin American Studies

From the Back Cover:

"This is an outstanding book. I know of no other work on the first half of the nineteenth century for Mexico (or elsewhere in Latin America, for that matter) that so consistently addresses the complexities and multiple facets of postcolonial political conflict. The author takes rural people seriously, and shows convincingly how they affected and were affected by state formation and attempts to build national policies."--Florencia E. Mallon, University of Wisconsin, Madison
"[Peasants, Politics, and the Formation of Mexico's National State] tell[s] us a great deal about the so-called Mexican Dark Ages and show[s] that the decades of apparent chaos and conflict were based on popular participation in state builing."--Mexican Studies

About this edition

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0804725721
• ISBN 13: 9780804725729
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 334