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bloodygranuaileIn one of those Haymarket sale book-buying fugue states a few months ago I picked up a copy of Stuart Easterling’s The Mexican Revolution: A Short History, 1910-1920 on the basis that I didn’t know anything about the Mexican Revolution and I probably should. I packed it on my last Maine trip because I’d already started reading Mexican Gothic, which had mentioned the Revolution a few times and put it back at the top of my mind that I don’t know anything about the Mexican Revolution and probably should.
This book does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, which is to provide a very short, readable overview of the major factions and figures and things that happened in that time period and why, thereby making the debates over its legacy somewhat more comprehensible to people like myself who have very little background in this. It’s not always the most thrilling reading, since it zips through things pretty quickly, but as it is neither particularly dense nor jargony, it’s at least quite easy to read. I think it will provide me a useful framework for where in my head to house additional information about the Mexican Revolution I may run into should I decide to read more in-depth stuff about specific aspects/elements of it, which I might, or if I read more pulpy Gothic novels set in Mexico, which I definitely will if I can find them.
My biggest critique here is that I probably didn’t need to own this book and could well have gotten it out of the library, so if anyone else is like “The Mexican Revolution… what was that about? I have no idea, probably I should know this” I will be happy to just give you my copy.
This book does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, which is to provide a very short, readable overview of the major factions and figures and things that happened in that time period and why, thereby making the debates over its legacy somewhat more comprehensible to people like myself who have very little background in this. It’s not always the most thrilling reading, since it zips through things pretty quickly, but as it is neither particularly dense nor jargony, it’s at least quite easy to read. I think it will provide me a useful framework for where in my head to house additional information about the Mexican Revolution I may run into should I decide to read more in-depth stuff about specific aspects/elements of it, which I might, or if I read more pulpy Gothic novels set in Mexico, which I definitely will if I can find them.
My biggest critique here is that I probably didn’t need to own this book and could well have gotten it out of the library, so if anyone else is like “The Mexican Revolution… what was that about? I have no idea, probably I should know this” I will be happy to just give you my copy.