Independent Mexico - (Mexican Experience) by Will Fowler (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In mid-nineteenth-century Mexico, garrisons, town councils, state legislatures, and an array of political actors, groups, and communities began aggressively petitioning the government at both local and national levels to address their grievances. Often viewed as a revolt or a coup d'état, these pronunciamientos were actually a complex form of insurrectionary action that relied first on the proclamation and circulation of a plan that listed the petitioners' demands and then on endorsement by copycat pronunciamientos that forced the authorities, be they national or regional, to the negotiating table. In Independent Mexico, Will Fowler provides a comprehensive overview of the pronunciamiento practice following the Plan of Iguala. This fourth and final installment in, and culmination of, a larger exploration of the pronunciamiento highlights the extent to which this model of political contestation evolved. The result of more than three decades of pronunciamiento politics was the bloody Civil War of the Reforma (1858-60) and the ensuing French Intervention (1862-67). Given the frequency and importance of the pronunciamiento, this book is also a concise political history of independent Mexico.

Review Quotes

"Independent Mexico: The Pronunciamiento in the Age of Santa Anna, 1821-1858, will be indispensable to those historians looking to understand Mexico's political culture."--Catherine Andrews, Estudios de Historia Moderna y Contemporánea de México

"Independent Mexico is one of the best college history texts I have read in a long time. The book is imaginative, well conceived, and well researched. . . . Will Fowler has put together a fascinating book on one of the most contested topics in the current debate about Latin America: the role of force in history."--Abdiel Oñate, professor of Latin American studies at San Francisco State University -- (3/5/2015 12:00:00 AM)

"Independent Mexico strengthens the foundation for talking about political tumult at the national level as a quasi-bureaucratic process in which a wide web of prominent citizens engaged."--Zachary Brittsan, Hispanic American Historical Review

"[Independent Mexico] will be treasured by scholars of Mexico's late colonial and early national history."--Robert E. May, Journal of the Society for Latin American Studies

"An important work that can be built on to answer other questions."--CHOICE

"Fowler crafts an exceptionally cogent narrative of Mexico's tumultuous first fifty years and provides a pithy synthesis of recent advances in the historiography of Mexican independence, both of which will be useful to advanced undergraduates and graduate students unfamiliar with the topic."--Marc Antone, H-LatAm

About the Author

Will Fowler is a professor of Latin American studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He is the author or editor of several books, including Forceful Negotiations; Malcontents, Rebels, and "Pronunciados"; and Celebrating Insurrection, all published by the University of Nebraska Press.