ABSTRACT
Historians have paid scant attention to the five years that span from the conclusion early in 1848 of Mexico’s disastrous conflict with the United States to the final return to power in April 1853 of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. This volume presents a more thorough understanding of this pivotal time, and the issues and experiences that then affected Mexicans. It sheds light on how elite politics, church-state relations, institutional affairs, and peasant revolts played a crucial role in Mexico’s long-term historical development, and also explores topics like marriage and everyday life, and the public trials and executions staged in the aftermath of the war with the U.S.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter 2|18 pages
The Will of the People
Representaciones and Political Riots in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Mexico City
chapter 3|20 pages
Winds of a Coming Storm
The Failure of Vatican Diplomacy and the Rise of an Intransigent Leadership in the Mexican Church
chapter 4|43 pages
“The Powerful Element That Would Certainly Have Saved Us”
Debating the Revitalization of the National Guard in Post-War Mexico
chapter 6|25 pages
To Whom We Now Turn
The Problem of Leadership in Southeastern Mexico’s Age of Transition, 1848–1855
chapter 7|23 pages
Violence, Collaboration, and Population Movements
The New United States–Mexico Border, 1848–1853
chapter 8|27 pages
Truth and Reconciliation in Front of the Firing Squad
Trials and Executions in Post-War Mexico
chapter 9|31 pages
“Looking for Virtuous Citizens by the Lamp of Diogenes”
Governance, Moral Regulation, and Hegemony in Guanajuato, 1849–1853
