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Mexico

A Concise Illustrated History

  • Textbook
Mexico cover

Mexico

A Concise Illustrated History

  • Textbook
Quantity
Available on 05 Feb 2026
$47.68

Available for purchase via Bloomsbury etextbooks on publication date

This title is available for inspection copy requests

Description

This accessible, sweeping survey of Mexican history, from pre-Columbian times to the present, introduces critical political and economic processes that have defined the country.

With ample maps and illustrations, along with historiographical inserts, this book is a guide from the earliest beginnings of a great nation down to the present day. This 2nd edition includes the following changes:

- 2 additional chapters, covering contemporary Mexico in the 21st century
- Fresh and substantial content about the cartels, criminal organizations, and the drug war
- The latest updates on pre-Columbian archaeological discoveries
- 20 new illustrations
- 10 inserts addressing historiography and referencing over 100 scholarly books
- An expanded and updated Suggestions for Further Reading section

To understand this complex and diverse land is to study the splendor of its pre-Columbian cultures, learn the legacies of a violent conquest, and appreciate the fluorescence of 3 centuries of viceregal Spanish rule. The struggle for independence, war with the United States, French Intervention, Benito Juárez, dictatorship under Porfirio Díaz, revolutionary upheaval under “Pancho” Villa – all are laid out in crystal clear narrative. Nor does this book shirk from addressing the darker side of history. Examining the corruption of 20th-century presidents, security apparatuses, and the PRI party, it explores the roots of present-day cartels and rising patterns of social violence.

Table of Contents

Preface
Note about the Cover Image

Part I: Ancient Civilizations
1. Great Pyramids in the Highlands
2. The Maya of Yucatán
3. Olmecs, Téenek, Aztecs
4. Conquests

Part II: Colonial Centuries
5. The Creation of New Spain
6. Mid-Colonial Economics
7. Glimpses of Colonial Society
8. Late Colonial Reform and Revolt

Part III: Independence and Modernity
9. The Insurmountable Divide
10. Showdown with the Americans
11. Juárez, War, and the French
12. Age of the Railroad

Part IV: The Age of Rebellion
13. Twilight of the Porfirians
14. The Season of Rebellions
15. Return of the Strong Arm
16. The Limits of Idealism

Part V: Structures of Power
17. Miguel Alemán – Legacy President
18. PRI-Eminence
19. Bombast, Boom, Bust
20. Crises and Control

Afterword
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 05 Feb 2026
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 2nd
Extent 304
ISBN 9798881804626
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

John W. Sherman

John W. Sherman is a Professor of History at Wrigh…

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