So Far from God: The U.S. War With Mexico, 1846-1848 [Paperback]

John S. D. Eisenhower (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

The Mexican-American War of the 1840s, precipitated by border disputes and the U.S. annexation of Texas, ended with the military occupation of Mexico City by General Winfield Scott. In the subsequent treaty, the United States gained territory that would become California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. In this highly readable account, John S. D. Eisenhower provides a comprehensive survey of this frequently overlooked war.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The war between the United States and Mexico, often passed over lightly as a sort of rehearsal for the American Civil War, is dealt with by Eisenhower ( The Bitter Woods ) as an event of major significance in the nation's history. (It was certainly major from the loser's point of view: Mexico gave up more than half its territory in the 1848 Treaty of Gaudalupe Hidalgo.) This well-written, comprehensive history of the war takes into account the political and diplomatic dimensions as well as the military. The two principal campaigns are traced in colorful detail: Zachary Taylor's battles in northeast Mexico, aggressively fought until Winfield Scott appropriated that general's best troops for his own amphibious landing at Veracruz, and Scott's over land drive on Mexico City against formidable opposition, brilliantly successful despite weak support from Washington. Eisenhower, son of the former president, suggests that Winfield Scott was the most capable soldier this country has ever produced. Of President James Polk, one of the three major characters in this lively narrative, the author remarks, "Manifest Destiny was not Polk's invention, but he was its ideal agent." Author tour.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Eisenhower is a historian from whom there are too few books. The author of The Bitter Woods (1969) has produced a cool and thoughtful look at the understated conflict which preceded and shaped the Civil War. The narrative is detailed but fast-moving, and Eisenhower has brilliantly captured the political mood and the elan of the American and Mexican forces. Lay readers will enjoy the personalities; academics will approve of Eisenhower's research and historiography. There have been surprisingly few books on this subject in recent years, and this is the best one since Otis Singletary's The Mexican War (LJ 7/60).
- Raymond L. Puffer, U.S. Air Force History Prog., Los Angeles
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 436 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806132795
• ISBN-13: 978-0806132792
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a very good book, January 29, 1999

By 

Wayne Collier - See all my reviews

This review is from: So Far from God: The U.S. War With Mexico, 1846-1848 (Hardcover)

The war with Mexico has been given little attention by historians possibly because the victory has become tainted with the passage of time. In the succeeding century, the war assumed the mantle of a calculated move by an emerging power to steal land from a weaker and defenseless neighbor. In reality, the issues involved in this war were far more complex yet historians disconcerted by the easy victory have declined to fully examine the background leading to the conflict.

In the 1840s, Mexico was nation of contrasts; remnants of Spanish imperialism juxtaposed against the backwardness of a native population. The Mexican officers' corps was a highly educated and strong force in Mexican politics. They were supremely confident of the outcome in any conflict with the United States. Unfortunately, they commanded untrained albeit brave troops. This attitude of elitism by the Mexican Army officers ultimately proved disastrous in the war with the United States.

The Mexican government resisted all blandishments for a peaceful solution as they considered the United States a second-rate power with little enthusiasm for war. Their mistrust of American motives began with the Texas question and was heightened because of the recent intervention by American officials in the internal affairs of California. Mexicans entered the war with confidence and with the feeling that right was on their side.

The war resulted in thousands of deaths from shot and shell, disease, and neglect. Mexico sank into the turmoil and distrust bequeathed to a defeated nation. They were racked by recriminations and political divisions that have impaired a just relationship with the United States to this day. The United States became a two ocean power; the dominant country on the continent of the Americas, and an agressive nation that began to enforce its sovreignty against Great Britain, France, Russian, and any other interloper in the western hemisphere.

The author's analysis refutes any question of a peaceful settlement. Mexico was too proud and the United States wanted too much. The issues were fairly clear cut and concerned the continued expansion of the United States through sparsely populated areas ostensibly under Mexican control. There had been prior discussions with Mexico over land acquisitions. Money was offered along with mild threats - both coupled with promises not to interfere further into Mexican affairs. Mexican pride proved unyielding. With their defeat, Mexico paid the ultimate price assessed by a victor nation against a loser; loss of territory and the breakup of a national identity.

The war provided a rich cast of characters that dominated the American political scene for decades. The conflict proved a training ground for the Civil War and many future army generals from the Union and Confederate sides bloodied themselves against the Mexicans. The war with Mexico obliquely led to the Civil War and provided a bevy of "heroes" from which future American presidents were chosen.

The is a very good book. While offering little that is new, it does bring forth the facts in a very readable manner and stresses the schisms that still divide the peoples of both countries.

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent account of the war with Mexico, June 13, 2001

By 

Ironmike (California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: So Far from God: The U.S. War With Mexico, 1846-1848 (Paperback)

As with all the other books by Mr Eisenhower that I have read, this one is very well done. His telling of this conflict, with the dozens of characters on both sides, the vicious bloody battles, the harrowing marches across a brutal landscape round out the story of this little known war. The text has several superb maps that allow the reader to follow the combatants. His information on the St Patrick's Battalion (Irishmen who deserted the US Army before and during the war) is detailed and interesting. Santa Ana is shown as an egotistical commander who had little regard for the welfare of his men, Taylor and Scott are portrayed as men with faults and certain military skills. Overall, an interesting read, it won't disapoint those with a thirst for this conflict.

63 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Woeful, Wonderful and Wrong?, December 22, 2003

By 

Michael E. Fitzgerald (Kingwood, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: So Far from God: The U.S. War With Mexico, 1846-1848 (Paperback)

If anyone undertakes even a cursory study of the concept of Manifest Destiny, he or she will sooner or later be forced to deal with the facts surrounding the US war with Mexico.

The contemporary evaluation is that we were wrong and used pretense to steal one third of Mexico. The fact that we offered to buy the land which was ultimately acquired by arms, and for which we subsequently paid, does not auger well in our defense. But to use today's standards to judge the right or wrong of an event that occurred over 150 years ago, like many historians do today, never produces good history. Simply stated, Mexico's disorganized centrist policies left it unable to govern itself. If the United States had not taken Mexico to task, another nation would have. Mexico was incredibly unstable and corrupt. It was both socially and morally bankrupt, a fact often overlooked today.

John D. Eisenhower leaves the correctness or incorrectness of this war where it belongs, with the reader. He tries to avoid the mistake of judging 19th century events with 21st century standards. Except for his short introduction, he makes no political statements. He neither supports this war as a natural extension of Manifest Destiny nor condemns it as some form of land based buccaneering. He simply reports the facts as they occurred.

And report the facts he does! What the American military accomplished over such a vast theater of operations with little more than 100,000 men in less than one year of active campaigning is almost incomprehensible. Mexico was no easy conquest. This became the bloodiest war the United States ever fought: 13% of those engaged died. But it was also a string of the most amazing, lightening fast victories, fought by officers who would face each as protagonists in the subsequent American Civil War. In a very real sense, this war with Mexico was a training ground for the holocaust that was to follow 13 years later.

This is a study in operational efficiency. American armies executed their war plans with impunity in four separate theaters of war and over thousands and thousands of miles. Fought from today's Brownsville, Texas to Monterrey and Buena Vista, from Veracruz to Mexico City, from Missouri to Chihuahua, and from El Paso to Los Angeles and San Francisco, this war spanned the continent. Fought at a time when communication really did not exist, when wagon trains and pack mules were the only forms of logistical support, this kind of coordinated effort was truly a spectacular feat of arms.