William H. Beezley

Drawing on materials ranging from archaeological findings to recent studies of migration issues and drug violence, William H. Beezley provides a dramatic narrative of human events as he recounts the story of Mexico in the context of world history. Beginning with the Mayan and Aztec civilizations and their brutal defeat at the hands of the Conquistadors, Beezley highlights the penetrating effect of Spain's three-hundred-year colonial rule, during which Mexico became a multicultural society marked by Roman Catholicism and the Spanish language. Independence, he shows, was likewise marked by foreign invasions and huge territorial losses, this time at the hands of the United States, who annexed a vast land mass--including the states of Texas, New Mexico, and California--and remained a powerful presence along the border. The 1910 revolution propelled land, educational, and public health reforms, but later governments turned to authoritarian rule, personal profits, and marginalization of rural, indigenous, and poor Mexicans. Throughout this eventful chronicle, Beezley highlights the people and international forces that shaped Mexico's rich and tumultuous history.

Mexico in World History

Michael C. Meyer

Mexico is a country of fascinating contrasts--glorious history and tumultuous politics, extraordinary culture and desperate poverty, ancient traditions and rapid modernization. Yet despite the growing curiosity about Mexico due to increased trade and commerce, mostly resulting from NAFTA, as well as increased tourism and immigration, there is presently no up-to-date, accessible history of Mexico for general readers. The Oxford History of Mexico, edited by Michael Meyer and William Beezley is a comprehensive, lucidly written, and fully current narrative history by twenty of the most esteemed historians of Mexico writing today. Drawing on radical changes in scholarship on Mexico over the past 15 years, The Oxford History of Mexico covers all aspects of the rich history of Mexico from precolonial times to the present. Exploring politics, religion, technology, modernization, ethnicity, colonialism, ecology, the arts, mass media, and popular culture, The Oxford History of Mexico provides a wealth of information for all readers interested in this remarkable country. Fully illustrated, with black-and-white photos throughout and a sixteen page color insert, suggestions for future reading, an index, and a glossary, this is the fullest and most engaging history of Mexico available today.

The Oxford History of Mexico

Colin M. MacLachlan

This narrative on the history of Mexican people examines the challenges they have faced since independence, telling the story of their resiliency and creative character during the past two years of political and economic change. It examines the national boundary not as a barrier, but as the setting of complex interactions resulting in the convergence of cultures; and, in so doing, reveals the Mexican experience not only in Mexico, but in what is today the southwestern United States.Discusses the Mexican experience according to major political, economic, cultural, and social watersheds--the rhythms that affect the people--rather than the traditional presidential administrations. Provides historical insight into contemporary events in Mexico, taking into account the events of the presidential election of 1994, revelations of corruption involving President Salinar's brother, and the Zapatista Liberation Army. Reevaluates the Salinas government, and adds information on the Zedillo regime, recent cultural development in music and movies, and Mexican campaigns to create a ready reserve of troops. For historians.

A History of Greater Mexico

El Gran Pueblo

David E. Lorey

Highlights the importance of history in general, emphasizing the importance of symbols, ritual, language, and the use of public spaces in coming to terms with episodes of collective violence and achieving national reconciliation.

The Politics of Remembrance in the Twentieth Century

Genocide, Collective Violence, and Popular Memory

William H Beezley

Linda Ann Curcio

Latin American Popular Culture: An Introduction is a collection of articles that explores a wide range of compelling cultural subjects in the region, including carnival, romance, funerals, medicine, monuments and dance, among others. The introduction lays out the most important theoretical approaches to the culture of Latin America, and the chapters serve as illustrative case studies. Featuring the latest scholarship in cultural history most of the chapters have not previously been published Latin American Popular Culture is an important resource for courses in Latin American history, civilization, popular culture, and anthropology.

An Introduction

Latin American Popular Culture

Michael Meyer

William Beezley

The tenth anniversary edition of The Oxford History of Mexico tells the fascinating story of Mexico as it has evolved from the reign of the Aztecs through the twenty-first century. Available for the first time in paperback, this magnificent volume covers the nation's history in a series of essays written by an international team of scholars. Essays have been revised to reflect events of the past decade, recent discoveries, and the newest advances in scholarship, while a new introduction discusses such issues as immigration from Mexico to the United States and the democratization implied by the defeat of the official party in the 2000 and 2006 presidential elections. Newly released to commemorate the bicentennial of the Mexican War of Independence and the centennial of the Mexican Revolution, this updated and redesigned volume offers an affordable, accessible, and compelling account of Mexico through the ages.

In this enlightening book, the well-known historian William Beezley contends that a Mexican national identity was forged during the nineteenth century not by a self-anointed elite but rather by a disparate mix of ordinary people and everyday events. In examining independence festivals, childrenÕs games, annual almanacs, and the performances of itinerant puppet theaters, Beezley argues that these seemingly unrelated and commonplace occurrencesÑnot the far more self-conscious and organized efforts of politicians, teachers, and othersÑcreated a far-reaching sense of a new nation. In the century that followed MexicoÕs independence from Spain in 1821, Beezley maintains, sentiments of nationality were promulgated by people who were concerned not with the promotion of nationalism but with something far more immediateÑthe need to earn a living. These peddlers, vendors, actors, artisans, writers, publishers, and puppeteers sought widespread popular appeal so that they could earn money. According to Beezley, they constantly refined their performances, as well as the symbols and images they employed, in order to secure larger revenues. Gradually they discovered the stories, acts, and products that attracted the largest numbers of paying customers. As Beezley convincingly asserts, out of Òwhat sold to the massesÓ a collective national identity slowly emerged. Mexican National Identity makes an important contribution to the growing body of literature that explores the influences of popular culture on issues of national identity. By looking at identity as it was fashioned Òin the streets,Ó it opens new avenues for exploring identity formation more generally, not just in Mexico and Latin American countries but in every nation. Check out the New Books in History Interview with Bill Beezley!

Memory, Innuendo, and Popular Culture

Mexican National Identity

This unique reader offers an engaging collection of essays that highlight the diversity of Latin America's cultural expressions from independence to the present. Exploring such themes and events as funerals, dance and music, letters and literature, spectacles and monuments, and world's fairs and food, a group of leading historians examines the ways that a wide range of individuals with copious, at times contradictory, motives attempted to forge identity, turn the world upside down, mock their betters, forget their troubles through dance, express love in letters, and altogether enjoy life. The authors analyze case studies from Argentina, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and Trinidad-Tobago, tracing as well how their examples resonate in the rest of the region. They show how people could and did find opportunities to escape, if only occasionally, their daily drudgery, making lives for themselves of greater variety than the constant quest for dominance, drive for profits, orknee-jerk resistance to the social or economic order so often described in cultural studies. Instead, this rich text introduces the complexity of motives behind and the diversity of expressions of popular culture in Latin America.

Latin American Popular Culture Since Independence

Featuring a new preface by the author, this brilliant and eminently readable cultural history looks at Mexican life during the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, from 1876 to 1911. At that time the modernization that Mexico underwent produced a fierce struggle between the traditional and the new, exacerbating class antagonisms in the process. The noted historian William H. Beezley illuminates many facets of everyday Mexican life lying at the heart of this conflict and change, including sports, storytelling, health care, technology, and the traditional Easter‑time Judas burnings that became a primary focus of strife during those years. This updated volume provides a teacher's guide, available on the University of Nebraska Press website, offering a manual of internet links, additional readings, and practice experiences that can be used in the classroom or by anyone who wants to go beyond the chapters of this book. Download the discussion guide.

Judas at the Jockey Club and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico

This brilliant and eminently readable cultural history looks at Mexican life during the dictatorship of Porfirio D�az, from 1876 to 1911. At that time Mexico underwent modernization, which produced a fierce struggle between the traditional and the new and exacerbating class antagonisms. In these pages, the noted historian William H. Beezley illuminates many facets of everyday Mexican life lying at the heart of this conflict and change, including sports, storytelling, healthcare, technology, and the traditional Easter-time Judas burnings that became a primary focus of the strife during those years. This second edition features a new preface by the author as well as updated and expanded text, notes, and bibliography.

Jürgen Buchenau

This unique book traces Mexico's eventful years from 1910 to 1952 through the experiences of its state governors. During this seminal period, revolutionaries destroyed the old regime, created a new national government, built an official political party, and then discarded in practice the essence of their revolution. In this tumultuous time, governors—some of whom later became president—served as the most significant intermediaries between the national government and the people it ruled. Leading scholars study governors from ten different states to demonstrate the diversity of the governors' experiences implementing individual revolutionary programs over time, as well as the waxing and waning of strong governorship as an institution that ultimately disappeared in the powerful national regime created in the 1940s and 1950s. Until that time, the contributors convincingly argue, the governors provided the revolution with invaluable versatility by dealing with pressing issues of land, labor, housing, and health at the local and regional levels. The flexibility of state governors also offered test cases for the implementation of national revolutionary laws and campaigns. The only book that considers the state governors in comparative perspective, this invaluable study offers a fresh view of regionalism and the Revolution. Contributions by: William H. Beezley, Jürgen Buchenau, Francie R. Chassen-López, Michael A. Ervin, María Teresa Fernández Aceves, Paul Gillingham, Kristin A. Harper, Timothy Henderson, David LaFrance, Stephen E. Lewis, Stephanie J. Smith, and Andrew Grant Wood.

Portraits in Conflict, Courage, and Corruption

State Governors in the Mexican Revolution, 1910–1952

Delight in the cultural aspects of Latin America by observing the objects that give life to history Latin American Cultural Objects and Episodesprovides readers with an eclectic and fascinating exploration of Latin American history through the examination of physical objects. Distinguished author and Professor William H. Beezley takes readers on a journey that includes objects used music and visual media, such as movies, documentaries, and television. Forming an integral part of the history they represent, the objects described in this book tell the tale of the little known or neglected part of Latin American history. While most historical authors and researchers focus on the political and economic life of Latin America, this author uses the objects he highlights to explain and illuminate the daily lives of the Latin American peoples and the legacies that they share. Forming an essential part of a comprehensive understanding of Latin American history, the book includes discussions and explorations of: How objects have transformed and shaped the cultures of Latin America over the years Unusual and interesting objects serendipitously discovered by a variety of researchers and historians Ten chapters, each beginning with an object acting as a synecdoche or metonym that introduces a discussion of Latin American historical life The significance of the objects to particular religious practices, musical traditions, or schools of visual media, such as folk art, film or television Perfect for anyone interested in Latin American life beyond politics and economics, Latin American Cultural Objects and Episodes belongs on the bookshelves of everyone with a curiosity about culture in Latin America as it’s revealed through physical objects.

Latin American Cultural Objects and Episodes

Music has been critical to national identity in Latin America, especially since the worldwide emphasis on nations and cultural identity that followed World War I. Unlike European countries with unified ethnic populations, Latin American nations claimed blended ethnicities—indigenous, Caucasian, African, and Asian—and the process of national stereotyping that began in the 1920s drew on themes of indigenous and African cultures. Composers and performers drew on the folklore and heritage of ethnic and immigrant groups in different nations to produce what became the music representative of different countries. Mexico became the nation of mariachi bands, Argentina the land of the tango, Brazil the country of Samba, and Cuba the island of Afro-Cuban rhythms, including the rhumba. The essays collected here offer a useful introduction to the twin themes of music and national identity and melodies and ethnic identification. The contributors examine a variety of countries where powerful historical movements were shaped intentionally by music.

Cultural Nationalism and Ethnic Music in Latin America

Judith Ewell

This unique collection emphasizes the human element in the study of Latin American history by focusing on the lives of twenty-three men, women, and children. Though they differ widely from each other in background and circumstance, these individuals share a common experience: all are caught up in some way by the profound, sometimes devastating, changes that accompany the modernization of a traditional society. Their stories bring vividly to life the impact that revolution, economic upheaval, urbanization, destruction of community life, and the disruption of family and gender roles have on ordinary people. These studies also bring out the various ways, often creative and courageous, in which Latin Americans have coped with the fortunes and vicissitudes of 'progress.'

The Twentieth Century

The Human Tradition in Latin America

William E. French

Cheryl E. Martin

This book presents readers with scholarship on public celebrations and popular culture throughout Mexican history. Leading scholars from the Americas and Great Britain discuss aspects of Mexico's popular culture from the seventeenth century to the present. The vast range of Mexican expression is examined, including Corpus Christi celebrations, New Spain, stone murals, and folk theater. Filling a need that becomes ever more pressing, this volume provides fresh insights.

Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico

Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance

A Companion to Mexican History and Culture features 40 essays contributed by international scholars that incorporate ethnic, gender, environmental, and cultural studies to reveal a richer portrait of the Mexican experience, from the earliest peoples to the present. Features the latest scholarship on Mexican history and culture by an array of international scholars Essays are separated into sections on the four major chronological eras Discusses recent historical interpretations with critical historiographical sources, and is enriched by cultural analysis, ethnic and gender studies, and visual evidence The first volume to incorporate a discussion of popular music in political analysis This book is the receipient of the 2013 Michael C. Meyer Special Recognition Award from the Rocky Mountain Conference on Latin American Studies.

William H. Beezley

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