An impressive, tightly written, and massively documented work. The great value of this book is that it looks at the playing out of the ideological struggle in the daily lives of villagers, and at how a leader could remain faithful to a political program through trying times. Guy P. C. Thomson and David G. LaFrance carry us through these years and issues-with a cast of many-through a political-military narrative sprinkled with socioeconomic and personal details. There are useful concluding sections at the end of each chapter. In the coming years, this study will be a required reference when assessing the impact of the liberal program.

American Historical Review

An intricate and thorough study of local and regional politics in the Puebla Sierra during the second half of the nineteenth century.

Barry Carr, La Trobe University, Australia

Indispensable reading for any understanding of politics in nineteenth-century Mexico.

David Brading, University of Cambridge, England

Patriotism, Politics, and Popular Liberalism is well worth reading to better understand the often convoluted politics of mid- and late-nineteenth-century Mexico. It is clearly and engagingly written and deftly avoids pedantic postmodernist ego-jargon. Tables, maps, and photographs are a plus. Thomson and LaFrance have written a book that should stand the test of time.

Journal of Social History

This fine book follows the important and needed trend toward regional studies that now marks so much Mexican historiography. Few works do it, however, in such admirable detail. One can only admire the author's scrupulous attention to local resources, which leave no doubt as to where the history of the sierra was being made and can be investigated. The book is a solid building block toward our understanding of this tempestuous period in Mexican history.

E.I.A.L.

The research undergirding this tome is nothing short of heroic and every minute of the more than twenty years that Thomson spent in the archives shines through in these pages.

Latin American Research Review