Review by Choice Review
The essays in this collection provide an important contribution to the literature analyzing Mexico's experience with "dirty wars," phenomena that have been more commonly associated with Argentina and Chile. Through a collection of ten impressively researched and well-written essays, the editors use case studies to evaluate the various ways regional revolutionary movements attempted to fulfill the failed goals of Mexico's 1910 revolution, and how the state developed the tools to systematically thwart these efforts. Through this analysis of unattained revolutionary goals and the repressive response by the state, the contributors provide important commentary on the Cold War, Mexico's human rights, gender history, and student radical behavior. Consistent throughout the essays is the view that most of the radical revolutionary attempts were flawed from the outset, yet Mexico employed broad instruments of terror to discredit these movements, including torture, rape, murder, arrest, and disappearances. As the contributing authors collectively argue, it was the breadth and brutality of Mexico's response that challenges the long-held idea that Mexico's dirty war was not as bad as those of its Latin American neighbors in the late 20th century. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professional historians. J. B. Kirkwood Colby-Sawyer College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
