Disorder and Progress - (Latin American Silhouettes) by Paul J Vanderwood (Paperback)

About the Book

This reissue of Professor Vanderwood's groundbreaking study-available again for the first time in a decade-examines bandits, police, and Mexican politics as a whole, showing how different groups used the agents of order and disorder to serve their interests. Originally publish...

Book Synopsis

This reissue of Prof. Vanderwood's groundbreaking study-available again for the first time in a decade-examines bandits, police, and Mexican politics as a whole, showing how different groups used the agents of order and disorder to serve their interests. Originally published in 1981, Disorder and Progress was subsequently revised and updated in 1992. Added to the enlarged 1992 edition and included here in this reissue are the entirely new introduction, material on the period of the independence wars and on Pancho Villa, and an updated bibliography. This book also incorporates additional data and interpretations regarding bandits and instruments for maintaining order that were included in the 1992 edition. Maps and illustrations will help readers appreciate the issues under discussion.

Review Quotes

"The first edition represented a major breakthrough in Mexican historiography; the revised and enlarged edition now presents a thoughtful brilliance of a historian at the height of his reflective powers. This book will delight the scholar and fascinate the general reader." --Colin MacLachlan, Tulane University

"Already a standard for students of banditry and police in modernizing societies. . . The book's vibrant, humanistic narratives make it a natural for classroom use. Vanderwood's new introduction will be required reading." --Gilbert M. Joseph, Yale University

"Will be of interest not only to students of Mexican history but also to those concerned with the development of national police forces and their roles in political life." --American Historical Review

Already a standard for students of banditry and police in modernizing societies. . . The book's vibrant, humanistic narratives make it a natural for classroom use. Vanderwood's new introduction will be required reading.

The first edition represented a major breakthrough in Mexican historiography; the revised and enlarged edition now presents a thoughtful brilliance of a historian at the height of his reflective powers. This book will delight the scholar and fascinate the general reader.

Will be of interest not only to students of Mexican history but also to those concerned with the development of national police forces and their roles in political life.

About the Author

Paul Vanderwood is professor of Mexican history at San Diego State University.