What do you think?
Rate this book
The Story Of Mexico
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
448 pages, Paperback
Published June 30, 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 21, 2026
First published in 1891, Susan Hale’s Mexico forms part of a series entitled The Story Of The Nations. Indeed, it is number 27 in this in the sequence with most preceding titles being mainly historical in their subject matter. But what we have in Susan Hale’s Mexico is effectively a potted history of the country, which comes right up to date. We need to be aware, however, that Mexico became “a country” only after it was colonized by Spain, since the geographical area that is now recognised a Mexico was never before, at least to our knowledge, a unary state. Susan Hale does allude to this by examining when and how the term “Mexican” might have arisen. The author must therefore cover an immense amount of ground in just a couple of hundred pages. Usually, such volumes become merely a list of events or inconsequential anecdote. But Susan Hale does present detail and displays considerable skill in constructing a narrative that remain remains readable through throughout.
Like all such historical analysis of events, it embodies as assumption what was currency at the time of its writing. A modern reader, of course, starts from different assumptions which themselves will be equally inappropriate when viewed from 130 years on. Later, Susan Hale reveals some of these assumptions in the passage: “If it may be conceded that the native races of Mexico are capable of development, it is evident that what is needed for the elevation from their present low estate, is good religion, good government, and good education.” It is perhaps a mark of her time that religion comes first. No modern reader would want to be as dismissive of the achievements of the pre-colonial civilizations, but a modern reader must bear in mind the fact that a hundred years before, such achievements would have been dismissed as the work of “savages”.
What the author does include is well described. For anyone ignorant of the major events that shaped the country that we now recognise as Mexico, the book remains an engaging, interesting and informative read.
Early on Susan Hale explains that: “in a book like this, which is permitted to gather up legend, as well as fact, in order to present the attractive, even romantic, side of its subject”. She therefore implies that the text might indeed be embroidered with hearsay. But I think she did not mean that. She is perhaps indicating that she would present religious myth alongside fact as a driving force. She does not, however, apply the same rules to Christian myth as those of the pre-colonial period, but at least she does include the ideas. It is part of the assumption of her age that the Christian position is both substantively different from other forms of religion and represents “truth”, whilst other traditions do not.
Mexico by Susan Hale is especially strong on the Maximilian period and beyond. She is hopeful at the end of the nineteenth century that the period of instability, regular revolutions and government change that followed the establishment of independence from Spain might just be over, and she looks forward to a time when Mexico and its inhabitants join the affluent in the world. There are lots of positives to be gleaned here.
Like all such historical analysis of events, it embodies as assumption what was currency at the time of its writing. A modern reader, of course, starts from different assumptions which themselves will be equally inappropriate when viewed from 130 years on. Later, Susan Hale reveals some of these assumptions in the passage: “If it may be conceded that the native races of Mexico are capable of development, it is evident that what is needed for the elevation from their present low estate, is good religion, good government, and good education.” It is perhaps a mark of her time that religion comes first. No modern reader would want to be as dismissive of the achievements of the pre-colonial civilizations, but a modern reader must bear in mind the fact that a hundred years before, such achievements would have been dismissed as the work of “savages”.
What the author does include is well described. For anyone ignorant of the major events that shaped the country that we now recognise as Mexico, the book remains an engaging, interesting and informative read.
Early on Susan Hale explains that: “in a book like this, which is permitted to gather up legend, as well as fact, in order to present the attractive, even romantic, side of its subject”. She therefore implies that the text might indeed be embroidered with hearsay. But I think she did not mean that. She is perhaps indicating that she would present religious myth alongside fact as a driving force. She does not, however, apply the same rules to Christian myth as those of the pre-colonial period, but at least she does include the ideas. It is part of the assumption of her age that the Christian position is both substantively different from other forms of religion and represents “truth”, whilst other traditions do not.
Mexico by Susan Hale is especially strong on the Maximilian period and beyond. She is hopeful at the end of the nineteenth century that the period of instability, regular revolutions and government change that followed the establishment of independence from Spain might just be over, and she looks forward to a time when Mexico and its inhabitants join the affluent in the world. There are lots of positives to be gleaned here.
Displaying 1 of 1 review