Crisis in the Southwest - (American Crisis Series: Books on the Civil War Era) by Richard Bruce Winders (Paperback)

About the Book

The war between the United States and Mexico was decades in the making. Although Texas was an independent republic from 1836 to 1845, Texans retained an affiliation with the United States that virtually assured annexation at some point. Mexico's reluctance to give up Texas put...

Book Synopsis

The war between the United States and Mexico was decades in the making. Although Texas was an independent republic from 1836 to 1845, Texans retained an affiliation with the United States that virtually assured annexation at some point. Mexico's reluctance to give up Texas put it on a collision course with the United States.

The Mexican War receives scant treatment in books. Most historians approach the conflict as if it were a mere prelude to the Civil War. The Mexican cession of 1848, however, rivaled the Louisiana Purchase in importance for the sheer amount of territory acquired by the United States. The dispute over slavery-which had been rendered largely academic by the Missouri Compromise-burst forth anew as Americans now faced the realization that they must make a decision over the institution's future. The political battle over the status of slavery in these new territories was the direct cause of the Crisis of 1850 and ignited sectional differences in the decade that followed.

In Crisis in the Southwest: The United States, Mexico, and the Struggle over Texas, Richard Bruce Winders provides a concise, accessible overview of the Mexican War and argues that the Mexican War led directly to the Civil War by creating a political and societal crisis that drove a wedge between the North and the South. While on the surface the enemy was Mexico, in reality Americans were at odds with one another over the future of the nation, as the issue of annexation threatened to upset the balance between free and slave states.

Winders also explains the military connections between the Mexican War and Civil War, since virtually every important commander in the Civil War-including Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Grant, McClellan, and Longstreet-gained his introduction to combat in Mexico. These connections are enormously significant to the way in which these generals waged war, since it was in the Mexican War that they learned their trade.

Crisis in the Southwest provides readers with a clear understandin

Review Quotes

Crisis in the Southwest should be required reading for anyone interested in the turbulent middle years of this nation's history. It will stand as an important turning point in the study of this period.

Bruce Winders targets college students and a discerning public readership in offering up the story of Texas-the rebellious Mexican province, the beleaguered republic, and the troublesome new American state-in the context of its interaction with Mexico and the United States from 1821 to 1850. Students will find useful the introductory 'Chronology' and 'Cast of Characters.' Chapter-ending notes are chock full of published primary source material, an the six page 'Bibliographical Essay' serves to guide those who desire deeper reading or specialized works that touch upon possible research topics ... crispness characterizes the text, which covers considerable ground in slightly more than one hundred and fifty pages. Winders, longtime historian and curator of the Alamo, has taken on an imposing task and has completed it skillfully. Texas as a principal component of America's mid-nineteenth-century turbulence comes through with clarity in this thoughtful, well-reasoned monograph.

Never before has a modern historian set the events of the Texas Revolution, the annexation crisis, and the war with Mexico in the full context of relations between Spain, Mexico, and the new United States. From the acquisition of Louisiana in 1803 until the breakup of the Union, Texas was pivotal not only as a place but as an idea, and Crisis in the Southwest distinguished historian Richard Bruce Winders explores the meaning of that idea and its impact on three generations of Americans.

Remarkably concise and clear, Crisis in the Southwest is the most student-friendly history of the U.S-Mexican War in print.

This concise, crisply written historical survey of the Mexican War has a special emphasis on the role Texas played as a motivation for that conflict, and provides a solid narrative overview of the military aspects of the war written from the U.S. viewpoint. As such, it constitutes the best one-volume short synthesis of the Mexican War available to students who wish to know about that military struggle. It is well-written, provides balanced coverage, and offers an admirable context for understanding this chapter of American history.

Winders deftly bring together a number of topics that are often the subjects of individual studies. There is solid background information for readers who may not be familiar with the persons and events involved....The book will be useful in a classroom setting. It comes in a reasonably priced paperback version, and features a useful chronology and cast of characters. The maps are excellent. Winders has produced an excellent companion piece for his earlier Mr. Polk's Army.

About the Author

Richard Bruce Winders is a historian and curator at the Alamo.