Juárez

Profiles in Power

by Brian R. Hamnett

Benito Juarez (1806--72), Indian-born (Zapotec) founding father of modern Mexico, championed a newly independent, largely non-white nation at a time of aggressive European supremacy. His brand of liberalism broke with the Indian and Hispanic pasts, curbed the power of church and army, and promoted federalism and civil supremacy. He outmanoeuvred the conservatives in a bitter civil war (1858--61), and, as President, frustrated Napoleon III's imperial ambitions by defeating -- and executing -- his Habsburg puppet, the unfortunate emperor Maximilian. This is a major study of an extraordinary career, with resonances far beyond Mexico itself.

301 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Brian Hamnett is a Research Professor in History Emeritus at the University of Essex, where he taught from 1990 until his retirement. Hamnett studied as an undergraduate and postgraduate at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and then became Assistant Professor in History at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA, from 1968 to 1972. After a period at the University of Reading (1972-74), he taught at the University of Strathclyde (1974-90) where he became a Reader in 1989. From 1990-95 he was joint Editor of the Bulletin of Latin American Research, and has been a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Latin American Studies and of the International Advisory Boards of the European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Correspondent of the Academia Mexicana de la Historia. He was Director of the Latin American Centre (1994-97). In March 2010, Professor Hamnett was awarded a Banco Nacional de Mexico prize for Foreign Scholar working on Mexican Regional History.

Reviews

[Eduardo Garcia-Gaspar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Otro de los libros que deben leerse para conocer a uno de los gobernantes que forjaron a México en el siglo 19. Provee una narración detallada que permite entender a un ser humano con un faltas y aciertos que está muy lejos de la caricatura que se tiene de él y de la interpretación que el actual gobierno tiene de este personaje. Otra obra que debe leerse para quitarse de encima las fantasías nacionalistas que se han creado a su alrededor.