Overview
Mexico's movement toward independence from Spain was a key episode in the dissolution of the great Spanish Empire, and its accompanying armed conflict arguably the first great war of decolonization in the nineteenth century. This book argues that in addition to being a war of national liberation, the struggle was also an internal war pitting classes and ethnic groups against each other, an intensely localized struggle by rural people, especially Indians, for the preservation of their communities. While local and national elites focused their energies on wresting power from colonial authorities and building a new nation-state, rural people were often much more concerned about keeping village identities and lifeways intact against the forces of state expansion, commercialization, and modernization. Conventional wisdom says that Mexican independence was achieved through a cross-class and cross-ethnic alliance between creole ideologues, military leaders, and a mass following. This book shows that this is not only an incomplete explanation of what went on in Mexico during the decade of armed confrontation that led to Mexico's independence, but also a distortion of Mexican social and cultural history. The author delves deeply into life histories, previously unexamined texts, statistical social profiling, and local historical ethnography to examine the dynamics of popular rebellion. He focuses especially on Mexico's Indian villages, but also considers the role of parish priests as insurgent leaders; local conflicts over land, politics, and religious symbols; the influence of messianism and millenarianism in popular insurgent ideology; and the everyday language of political upheaval.
Full Product Details
Author: Eric Van Young
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Imprint: Stanford University Press
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Width: 17.80cm
, Height: 3.80cm
, Length: 25.40cm
Weight: 1.193kg
ISBN: 9780804748216
ISBN 10: 0804748217
Pages: 277
Publication Date: 11 December 2002
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Reviews
van Young has thoroughly examined and incorporated significant primary archival and secondary sources, from both in the United States and Mexico, in this superbly researched, well-written monograph of the causes of the rebellion in Mexico that resulted in independence. . . . The Other Rebellion offers important new insights and perspectives and would be especially useful for upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars interested in studying Mexico in the early nineteenth century. -- History: Reviews of New Books
The atmosphere of rural life is highlighted compellingly from the author's exhaustive research and brilliant analysis. --Douglas W. Richmond, University of Texas at Arlington
Author Information
Eric Van Young is Professor and Chair of the Department of History and Associate Director of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego. His most recent book is Colección documental sobre la Independencia Mexico.
