Mexico History
Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. It also has the largest number of American Indian language speakers on the continent, the majority speaking Nahuatl, Mayan, Mixtec and Zapotec. Human presence in Mexico has been shown to date back 40,000 years based upon ancient human footprints discovered in the Valley of Mexico.
The nation's name is derived from the Mexican civilization known in popular culture as the Aztecs.
Mexico
For thousands of years, Mexico was a land of hunter-gatherers. Around 9,000 years ago, ancient Mexicans domesticated corn and initiated an agricultural revolution, leading to the formation of many complex civilizations. These civilizations revolved around cities with writing, monumental architecture, astronomical studies, mathematics, and militaries. After 4,000 years, these civilizations were destroyed with the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519. For three centuries, Mexico was colonized by Spain, during which time the majority of its indigenous population died off. Formal independence from Spain was recognized in 1821. A war with the United States ended with Mexico selling almost half of its territory in 1848 (the treaty of Guadalupe). France invaded Mexico in 1864 and ruled briefly until 1867. The Mexican Revolution would later result in the death of 10% of the nation's population. Mexico: A History
MEXICO'S HUMAN HISTORY BEGAN with the aboriginal people we call Indians-American Indians or Amerinds, to distinguish them from East Indians.
Mexico: A History
Amazon Price: $18.21 (as of 10/12/2008)
More books on the History of Mexico
The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics (The Latin America Readers)
"The Mexico Reader" is a vivid introduct more...0 points
The Oxford History of Mexico
Mexico is a country of fascinating contrasts--glor more...0 points
The Course of Mexican History by Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman, Susan M. Deeds
Mexico's political, social, and economic landscape more...0 points
A Concise History of Mexico (Cambridge Concise Histories) by Brian R. Hamnett
The second edition of this accessible study of Mex more...0 points
The History of Mexico by Burton Kirkwood
This narrative history of Mexico through 1998 will more...0 points
Mexico: A Brief History by Alicia Hernández Chávez
Beginning with the pre-Hispanic period and ending more...0 points
Fire And Blood: A History Of Mexico by T. R. Fehrenbach
There have been many Mexicos: the country of varie more...0 points
The Oxford History of Mexico
With a population of nearly 100 million people, Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. Although contemporary American images of the country range from illegal border crossings to peasant uprisings, this important work uncovers a vital and volatile civilization with its roots in the indigenous Mayan, Olmec, and Aztec cultures, which collided with the conquering Spaniards who brought African slaves with them in the 16th century. "The course of Mexican history, as with that of any other nation, demonstrates amply that sincerity and guile can occupy the same page," the editors write. "There is much in the Mexican experience to command admiration and ennoble the human spirit, even if on a few occasions it might also cause an eyebrow to be raised."
In The Oxford History of Mexico, 21 scholars unravel Mexico's long history of Indian extermination, slavery, colonialism, and U.S. expansion with new information outlining environmental, gender, and pop culture studies, particularly comic books and telenova soap operas. They also detail the cultural growth and development of this nation. Of course, the great historical figures are also given close attention: Montezuma, the great Aztec leader; Hernan Cortes, the conquistador who brought down the Aztec empire; Malinche, Cortes' Indian mistress and interpreter; and Pancho Villa, who led the 1910 Mexican Revolution. Artistically, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Jose Orozco are cited, as are writers such as Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Octavio Paz, and Carlos Fuentes. This is a comprehensive guide to a rich and varied country.
In The Oxford History of Mexico, 21 scholars unravel Mexico's long history of Indian extermination, slavery, colonialism, and U.S. expansion with new information outlining environmental, gender, and pop culture studies, particularly comic books and telenova soap operas. They also detail the cultural growth and development of this nation. Of course, the great historical figures are also given close attention: Montezuma, the great Aztec leader; Hernan Cortes, the conquistador who brought down the Aztec empire; Malinche, Cortes' Indian mistress and interpreter; and Pancho Villa, who led the 1910 Mexican Revolution. Artistically, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Jose Orozco are cited, as are writers such as Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Octavio Paz, and Carlos Fuentes. This is a comprehensive guide to a rich and varied country.
The Oxford History of Mexico
Amazon Price: $44.00 (as of 10/12/2008)
The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics
This massive compilation of articles, essays, poetry, and photographs provides a wonderful introduction to the history and culture of Mexico. Joseph and Henderson are both historians with extensive backgrounds in Latin American and Mexican history. They have selected an eclectic mix of writers, many of them Mexican, including Carlos Fuentes and Octavio Paz. Topics range from the origins and growth of the Aztec Empire to the causes of the Mexican Revolution to the problems facing modern Mexico. There are well-thought-out political tracts here, as well as screeds against political corruption and economic exploitation that drip with outrage. What emerges is a portrait of the "many Mexicos" in which the wealthy, the growing middle class, and the impoverished indigenous peoples are all struggling to find their place in an exciting and rapidly changing land. This work is ideal for general readers, and one hopes it will encourage many to read and learn more about this important and diverse nation.
The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics (The Latin America Readers)
Amazon Price: $17.13 (as of 10/12/2008)
The Course of Mexican History
Mexico's political, social, and economic landscapes have shifted in very striking ways in recent years, and the country now moves cautiously into the twenty-first century. The Course of Mexican History has been updated and revised to address these remarkable transformations. This eighth edition offers a completely up-to-date, lively, and engaging survey from pre-Columbian times to the present.
For this new edition, the authors have streamlined the text, making it more concise and readable without diluting its broad scope. The book now features an updated section evaluating the presidency of Vicente Fox from 2000 to 2006 and a sixteen-page color insert that vividly illustrates the links between Mexico's history and arts. It also includes 200 photos and drawings, thirteen maps for ease of reference, and an appendix listing all Mexican heads of state, from Tenoch through Fox. The leading textbook in its field, The Course of Mexican History is indispensable for students of Mexican history, politics, economics, and culture.
For this new edition, the authors have streamlined the text, making it more concise and readable without diluting its broad scope. The book now features an updated section evaluating the presidency of Vicente Fox from 2000 to 2006 and a sixteen-page color insert that vividly illustrates the links between Mexico's history and arts. It also includes 200 photos and drawings, thirteen maps for ease of reference, and an appendix listing all Mexican heads of state, from Tenoch through Fox. The leading textbook in its field, The Course of Mexican History is indispensable for students of Mexican history, politics, economics, and culture.
The Course of Mexican History
Amazon Price: $58.45 (as of 10/12/2008)
Fire And Blood: A History Of Mexico
There have been many Mexicos: the country of varied terrain, of Amerindian heritage, of the Spanish Conquest, of the Revolution, and of the modern era of elections and the rule of bankers. Mexico was forged in the fires of successive civilizations, and baptized with the blood of millions, all of whom added tragic dimensions to the modern Mexican identity. T. R. Fehrenbach brilliantly delineates the contrasts and conflicts between them, unraveling the history while weaving a fascinating tapestry of beauty and brutality: the Amerindians, who wrought from the vulnerable land a great indigenous Meso-American civilization by the first millennium B.C.; the successive reigns of Olmec, Maya, Toltec, and Mexic masters, who ruled through an admirably efficient bureaucracy and the power of the priests, propitiating the capricious gods with human sacrifices; the Spanish conquistadors, who used smallpox, technology, and their own ruthless individualism to erect a new tyranny over the ruins of the old; the agony of independent Mexico, struggling with the weight of its overwhelming past and tremendous potential. Throughout the narrative the author resurrects the great personalities of Mexican history, such as Motecuhzoma, Cortes, Santa Anna, Juarez, Maximilian, Diaz, Pancho Villa, and Zapata. Fehrenbach, who has updated this edition to include recent events, has created a work of scholarly perspective and gripping prose.
Fire And Blood: A History Of Mexico
Amazon Price: $18.45 (as of 10/12/2008)
A Concise History of Mexico
The second edition of this accessible study of Mexico includes two new features, an examination of cultural developments since Independence from Spain in 1821 and a discussion of contemporary issues up to the time of publication. Several new plates with captions expand the thematic coverage in the book. The updated edition examines the administration of Vicente Fox, who came to power with the elections of 2000. The new sections reinforce the importance of Mexico's long and disparate history, from the Precolumbian era onwards, in shaping the country as it is today. This Concise History looks at Mexico from political, economic and cultural perspectives, and tackles controversial themes such as the impact of the Spanish Conquest and the struggle to establish an independent Mexico. A broad range of readers interested in the modern-day Americas should find here a helpful introduction to this vibrant and dynamic North-American society.
A Concise History of Mexico (Cambridge Concise Histories)
Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 10/12/2008)
Triumphs and Tragedy: A History of the Mexican People
The Maya and Olmecs mastered painting, sculpture and astronomy, but after the Spanish conquest the glories of ancient Mexico became dim ancestral memories. Mexican history, writes Ruiz, is mostly a tragedy, punctuated by sporadic triumphs exemplified by painter Jose Clemente Orozco and by reformist president Lazaras Cardenas, apostle of the downtrodden. Hard-hitting without being doctrinaire, this vastly illuminating people's history gives voice to the collective trauma of a nation decimated by Spanish colonial rule, betrayed by corrupt politicos and incompetent army chiefs, then manipulated into servile dependence on its neighbor to the north. Ruiz ( The Great Rebellion ), history professor at UC-San Diego, fuses cultural, political and social history. He shows that "trickle-down" capitalist economics since the early 1940s has been "a hoax" for the great majority of Mexicans. Photos. History Book Club alternate.
Triumphs and Tragedy: A History of the Mexican People
Amazon Price: $12.89 (as of 10/12/2008)
The History of Mexico
Dry, impersonal and filled with facts, the latest addition to the Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations series often reads like an over-long encyclopedia entry. Kirkwood, a professor of history at the University of Evansville, Indiana, divides the volume under subheadings like "Geography," "Population and Language," "Wage Labor" and "Colonial Economic Order." His most vivid chapters cover the Spanish conquest of the Aztec people and are rife with compelling details about that period's brutality. For example, he explains that Aztecs sacrificed humans to their gods because they believed that "shooting a victim with arrows so that his blood dripped on to the ground was a manner by which to revitalize the soil." Kirkwood occasionally presents his opinions as fact, as in his discussion of NAFTA and the "Americanization" of Mexico. He also provides very little detail about Mexico's thriving arts communities and its church life; Frida Kahlo, for example, is mentioned in a closing chapter on the "Notable People in the History of Mexico" but doesn't have a place in the main narrative. The volume does, however, give a comprehensive overview of the military and economic history of the U.S.'s southern neighbor-which makes it all the more unfortunate that Kirkwood decided to close his chronicle with Mexico's 1997 election. He leaves for other histories the dramatic events of the past seven years, including President Vicente Fox's overturning of the powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 2000.
The History of Mexico
Amazon Price: $12.89 (as of 10/12/2008)
Mexico: A Brief History
Beginning with the pre-Hispanic period and ending with the latest democratic developments of the twenty-first century, this definitive one-volume history of Mexico analyzes the ways that economic, social, and political dynamics have interacted to shape the nation's past. Alicia Hernandez Chavez takes into account new historiography--which is fully integrated with anthropology, political science, economics, and international relations--to present an original and fresh interpretation of the structures and processes that determined the country's evolution. Based on the latest sources in both Spanish and other languages, this book illustrates that Mexico's history--far from being one of violent change, uprisings, and revolution--tended more toward stability and political collaboration. Hernandez Chavez argues that Mexicans relied on tradition and institutions to effect change, resorting to disorder and destruction as little as possible. Numerous maps, tables, and charts support the text, providing extensive information on geography, social structures, the economy, politics, education, health, and transportation.
Mexico: A Brief History
Amazon Price: $23.35 (as of 10/12/2008)
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Mexico Travel Vacation
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Mexico Vacations
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Mexico is a travel vacation paradise, filled with charming beaches, snow capped mountains, desert landscapes and lush rainforests. Mexico offers a variety of vacation travel, from the small, peaceful fishing villages to the flashy neon cities, teemin...
