The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics

Mexico's history in bite size chunks, and with plent of meat. Cannot recommend this book too higly. Nearly 800 pages containing close to 100 essays and excerpts, all carefully chosen and very readable, cover Mexico's history from the bad old heart-ripping-out days through the machinations of modern politics. While this kind of book can so often be dry and mind-numbing, this collection is fresh and fascinating, partly because of the varying viewpoints and writing style of the many authors.

The Mexico Reader is a compilation of essays, where you hear/read the authors voices, not the 21st century's historians point of view. What I enjoyed most about this book was the historian's selection of essays dealing with the same time period. Quite often they would chose very compelling essays showing opposite ends of the political discussion. That I found refreshing!

If I had known this book before I could have helped my students a lot better than I did. Why do I like this book so much? Because it is a very wise selection of a very wide variety of texts about Mexican history and culture. It is a great anthology that will give its readers a very good picture of Mexican Culture. The authors chosen are excellent. If you are a student or a teacher of Mexican Culture, this is a book you should read. Moreover, for those of you that only want to reach the Medieval ideal: Mixing learning and enjoyment, this is also a book for you. Dr. Rafael Furlong De la G. (PhD Litt.)

Different and refreshing approach to Mexican history. Insightful and informative selections from both well known and more obscure original sources. Sections are brief and on point. Excellent bedside book. Outstanding as a stand alone work and valuable as a reference to more complete treatment of subjects you find particularly interesting. Balanced and objective. Best work on Mexico I've read in quite some time.

Anyone looking for documents for use in a history class, would be well advised to use this text.