The Mexican Revolution. Volume 1: Porfirians, Liberals, and Peasants (Cambridge Latin American Studies) [Hardcover]

Alan Knight (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 1986

Alan Knight's comprehensive two-volume history of the Mexican Revolution presents a new interpretation of one of the world's most important revolutions. While it reflects the many facets of this complex and far-reaching historical subject it emphasises its fundamentally local, popular and agrarian character and locates it within a more general comparative context. Volume I analyses the Porfirian old regime - its politics and ideology and the patterns of socio-economic and, above all, agrarian change which the regime encouraged, within the dynamic context of global capitalism. it shows how these factors combined to produce the 1910 revolution, in which a resurgent urban liberalism joined in uneasy alliance with popular rebellion. Triumphant in 1911, the alliance collapsed in 1911-13, as the liberal experiment was undermined by popular revolt and finally terminated by counter-revolutionary coup. Volume 2 begins with the army counter-revolution of 1913, which ended the liberal experiment, installed military rule and gave renewed stimulus to revolutionary mobilisation, in which the forces of Villa and Zapata were prominent. Dr Knight recounts and analyses the major campaigns of 1913-14 and offers a fresh interpretation of the great schism of 1914-15, which divided the Revolution in its moment of victory, and which led to the final bout of civil war between the forces of Villa and Carranza. He considers the manner and significance of Carranza's ultimate triumph, and ponders the essential question: what had the Revolution changed?

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Based on his own extensive research on the role of foreign interests in the Mexican Revolution along with information drawn from recent monographs, Knight has written a solid narrative history of the decade 1910-20. He views the Mexican Revolution as the last of the great 18th-century revolutions. Essentially a nationalist revolution, it "served to reinforce rather than to subvert many of the features of the old regime it overthrew." The great strength of Knight's history is his focus on the provincial and local scenes rather than the national scene. This is revolution from the bottom up. Of the central characters, Knight often reaches conclusions which differ from traditional assessements, thus offering a new perspective from which to view their conflicting roles. While some may take exception to Knight's assessments, on balance, there is no doubt that his work is truly a monument to the revolution it so brilliantly describes. Brian E. Coutts, Rice Univ. Lib., Houston
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Masterly. . . . One of the best books in the entire literature on the sociology of revolution."—W. G. Runciman, London Review of Books

(W. G. Runciman London Review of Books )

"Shows great originality and is the closest thing to date to a definitive history written by a single author. . . . The empiricist quality of this book may turn him into the next authority, the standard for a new generation of historians."—Jean Meyer, Hispanic American Historical Review

(Hispanic American Historical Review )

"This study undoubtedly will be considered one of the best written and most thoroughly researched synthese of the revolution for years to come."—Heather Fowler Salamini, Peasant Studies

(Heather Fowler Salamini Peasant Studies )

"Alan Knight''s remarkable Mexican Revolution must rank among the finest pieces of historical scholarship to have appeared in this country over the past decade, and deserves a much wider audience than Mexicanists alone."—Alistair Hennessy, Times Literary Supplement

(Alistair Hennessy Times Literary Supplement ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 620 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (April 30, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521244757
• ISBN-13: 978-0521244756
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,145,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes academic rigour is what's needed, December 8, 2003

By 

W. Booth (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mexican Revolution. Volume 1: Porfirians, Liberals, and Peasants (Cambridge Latin American Studies) (Hardcover)

This two-volume history of the Mexican Revolution is absolutely packed with case studies and individual narratives. Knight's vision is one of many and various Mexicos, all of which experienced a different revolution. Far from being simply to entertain, the role of a history text is to explain what happened. Knight puts forward a strong, if not universally accepted, case for the dismissal of grand theories of a single process, instead arguing that the revolution meant one thing to the generals of the north, quite another to the peasants of the centre, and very little to (for example) the Indians of the south. The reader may feel confused by the book; there is nothing wrong with such an outcome - it was a confusing period of history during which few people knew what was happening and with what likely effect.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Authoritative Account of the Mexican Revolution, June 17, 2007

By 

A Student of History (Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mexican Revolution, Volume 1: Porfirians, Liberals, and Peasants (Paperback)

This two volume book on the Mexican Revolution is massive, and for twenty years now it has stood as one of the most important works on the Mexican Revolution. Knight's research is exhaustive, and his writing style is unique with an impressive command of the English language. The work weaves between narrative and analysis, and the reader is always kept aware of the historiography of the Mexican Revolution, which is still a contentious theme in Mexican history almost one hundred years now after the Revolution. Knight's work is definitive and should be read by any serious student of the greats events of the twentieth century.

8 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Random musings, January 21, 2002

By 

"janssejl" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mexican Revolution, Volume 1: Porfirians, Liberals, and Peasants (Paperback)

This book totally defies history's number one precept which is to entertain. Knight follows a random course through the Mexican Revolution digressing into such inane topics as the difference between a revolution and rebellion, or the difference between social and criminal banditry. Furthermore, he bogs down in trying to classify the different parts of the revolution as revolutionary or counterrevolutionary basically coming to the conclusion that the revolution was caudillismo on a grand scale where ideologies are overwhelmed by personal vendettas and disagreements between pueblos that go back to antiquity.
Knight finally finishes up with two main assertions that are neither enlightening nor cogent. The first is his characterization of the war as a struggle between mountaineers and lowlanders. The second is that the conventionist forces were regionalists versus the constitutionalists who advocated a strong central government. Merely characterizing the opponents is supposed to suffice for analyis. There is nothing here to suggest a paradigm for future or contemporary revolutions, nor to provide real insight in the Mexican Revolution itself. It's wholly academic and sterile.
This book contains many vignettes and examples to support Knight's "theories", but it is altogether not a good overview of the war.
I would recommend this book to a student of the revolution, already well versed who wants to gain some new information.