Review by Choice Review
This book by international relations scholar Higgins (Univ. of Glasgow) is not about the 1994 uprising of Maya Indians in Chiapas, Mexico. Only one brief chapter deals with that subject, which is better documented in a host of other publications. This book, rather, is an extended interpretation of several centuries of the evolution of the Mexican state, its attitude toward indigenous peoples in its territory, and its failure to understand the truly distinct viewpoints and priorities of its Indian peoples. In a very well-written, precisely argued, and wide-ranging essay, Higgins offers the Chiapas case as a corrective to current practices in his field that largely accept unquestioned the primacy of the Western-style state as the only significant actor in international relations. Indians in Chiapas, long ignored and overlooked by elites so sure of their policies and the trajectory of "their" nation, organized themselves, planned, and acted on their own quite different principles and priorities, seizing for themselves a place as actors on the international stage. This is a very readable and provocative contribution to the study of Mexican history. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. P. R. Sullivan independent scholar
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
