Title The dead march : a history of the Mexican-American War / Peter Guardino

Published Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2017 ©2017

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Description 1 online resource (x, 502 pages) Contents Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- The Men Most Damaging to the Population -- We'Re the Boys for Mexico -- Like Civilized Nations -- Even the Fathers of Families -- Each Chapter We Write in Mexican Blood -- The Yankees Died Like Ants -- The People of the Town Were Firing -- Ashamed of My Country -- The Law of the Strongest --Conclusion -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Illustration Credits --Acknowledgments -- Index Summary The bloody 1846-1848 war between the United States and Mexico filled out the shape of the continental United States, forcing Mexico to recognize its loss of Texas and give up the rest of what became the Southwestern United States. Generally people argue that the United States won this war because unlike Mexico it was already a unified nation that commanded the loyalty of its citizens. Focusing on the vivid experiences of ordinary soldiers and civilians, both Americans and Mexicans, The Dead March reveals something very different. The United States won not because it was more unified but instead because it was much wealthier. Both Americans and Mexicans had complicated relationships with their nations, relationships entangled with their commitments to their religions, their neighbors, and their families. The war's events, both on the grand scale of the conflict between nations and the more intimate scale of campaigns and battles, cannot be understood without probing this social and cultural history. Politicians could not simply conjure up armies, and generals could not manipulate units as if their members were chess pieces without ideas or attitudes. This book also uses the war to compare the two countries as they existed in 1846. The results of this comparison are quite startling. The United States and Mexico were much more alike than they were different, and both nations were still in the tumultuous and often violent process of constituting themselves. What separated them was not some fabled American unity or democracy but the very real economic advantages of the United States.-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes online resource; title from PDF title page (ProQuest Ebook Central, viewed January 7, 2021) Subject Mexican War, 1846-1848. HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- General. HISTORY / Military / United States Economic history Economic history -- Regional disparities Social conditions Bevölkerung Mexikanischer Krieg SUBJECT United States -- Economic conditions -- To 1865. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140021 United States -- Social conditions -- To 1865. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140512 Mexico -- Economic conditions -- 19th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85084554 Mexico -- Social conditions -- 19th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh88007837 North America -- Economic conditions -- 19th century -- Regional disparities Subject Mexico North America United States Form Electronic book ISBN 9780674981836 0674981839

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