Overview

In his provocative and insightful new book, William Schell, Jr. examines the largest foreign colony in Mexico during the reign of Porfirio Diaz, 1876-1911. Expatriate Americans constituted the greatest number of technicians, technocrats, consultants, engineers, agronomists, mining specialists, railroad experts, and venture capitalists in Mexico. The influence of these integral outsiders extended far beyond economics and Porfirian efforts to manage the booming era of Mexican modernization. Marriages between Americans and Mexican society women and membership in such organizations as Masonic brotherhoods brought the foreigners into the most important social circles. Integral Outsiders: The American Colony in Mexico City, 1876-1911 contains a colorful history of the Porfiriato through the lens of American participation, including carefully wrought descriptions of the expatriate Americans. These individual biographies provide the narrative with a more human and interesting character, allowing Schell to move beyond the simplistic view of weak, greedy Mexican elites conspiring with powerful, greedy foreign capitalists to amass great wealth while impoverishing the Mexican masses and creating economic underdevelopment. Basing his comments on meticulous research, Schell points out that U.S. influence was hardly a one-way street and that the interaction between U.S. citizens and Mexicans was a complex system of cultural negotiations. He demonstrates convincingly that, while insinuating themselves into Mexican society, Americans thought that they were changing Mexico, and, in so doing, changed themselves. As Schell states, Ultimately, then, it may be said that the Porfirian regime got the form of hegemony it sought, and Washington took the sort of hegemony it could get.

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9780842028387

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Reviews

In seven pithy, well-structured chapters, Professor Schell has given us an insightful vision of Porfirian Mexico's political economy and its workings from a hitherto neglected perspective—that of its economically dynamic American colony. The author's firm grasp of the Mexican business milieu in the Dìaz era (1876–1911) leads the reader through Mexico City's 'belle époque.' -- J. León Helguera, Vanderbilt University Through painstaking research Professor Schell has produced a provocative and insightful book that is essential reading for scholars interested in Mexico and U.S. foreign relations. -- John Mason Hart, University of Houston William Schell's long-awaited account of the American colony in Mexico around the turn of the twentieth century is a singularly impressive achievement. Exhaustively researched and written with gusto, Integral Outsiders is certain to provoke Mexicanist and foreign relations historians and delight aficionados of Mexico. The author's sure grasp of both political economy and the latest trends in cultural analysis enables him to challenge a host of conventional wisdoms about imperialism, nationalism, and cross-cultural encounters in Mexico and Latin America. -- Gilbert M. Joseph, Yale University

In seven pithy, well-structured chapters, Professor Schell has given us an insightful vision of Porfirian Mexico's political economy and its workings from a hitherto neglected perspective-that of its economically dynamic American colony. The author's firm grasp of the Mexican business milieu in the Diaz era (1876-1911) leads the reader through Mexico City's 'belle epoque.' -- J. Leon Helguera, Vanderbilt University Through painstaking research Professor Schell has produced a provocative and insightful book that is essential reading for scholars interested in Mexico and U.S. foreign relations. -- John Mason Hart, University of Houston William Schell's long-awaited account of the American colony in Mexico around the turn of the twentieth century is a singularly impressive achievement. Exhaustively researched and written with gusto, Integral Outsiders is certain to provoke Mexicanist and foreign relations historians and delight aficionados of Mexico. The author's sure grasp of both political economy and the latest trends in cultural analysis enables him to challenge a host of conventional wisdoms about imperialism, nationalism, and cross-cultural encounters in Mexico and Latin America. -- Gilbert M. Joseph, Yale University

In seven pithy, well-structured chapters, Professor Schell has given us an insightful vision of Porfirian Mexico's political economy and its workings from a hitherto neglected perspective that of its economically dynamic American colony. The author's firm grasp of the Mexican business milieu in the D az era (1876 1911) leads the reader through Mexico City's 'belle poque.'--J. Le n Helguera

Author Information

William Schell Jr. is professor of history at Murray State University.

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