The Roots of Conservatism in Mexico: Catholicism, Society, and Politics in the Mixteca Baja, 1750-1962 - Softcover

Smith, Benjamin T

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826351727 ISBN 13: 9780826351722

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press, 2012

Synopsis

<em>The Roots of Conservatism</em> is the first attempt to ask why over the past two centuries so many Mexican peasants have opted to ally with conservative groups rather than their radical counterparts. Blending socioeconomic history, cultural analysis, and political narrative, Smith’s study begins with the late Bourbon period and moves through the early republic, the mid-nineteenth-century Reforma, the Porfiriato, and the Revolution, when the Mixtecs rejected Zapatista offers of land distribution, ending with the armed religious uprising known as the “last Cristiada,” a desperate Cold War bid to rid the region of impious “communist” governance. In recounting this long tradition of regional conservatism, Smith emphasises the influence of religious belief, church ritual, and lay-clerical relations both on social relations and on political affiliation. He posits that many Mexican peasants embraced provincial conservatism, a variant of elite or metropolitan conservatism, which not only comprised ideas on property, hierarchy, and the state, but also the overwhelming import of the church to maintaining this system.

About this title

About the Author:

<strong>Benjamin T. Smith</strong> is an associate professor at Michigan State University. His first book, <em>Pistoleros and Popular Movements</em>, looked at the process of state formation in post-Revolutionary Oaxaca.

From the Inside Flap:

The Roots of Conservatism is the first attempt to ask why over the past two centuries so many Mexican peasants have opted to ally with conservative groups rather than their radical counterparts.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0826351727
• ISBN 13: 9780826351722
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448