Mexico in the 1940s: Modernity, Politics, and Corruption

(Paperback)

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This title examines Mexican politics in the wake of Cardenismo, and the dawn of Miguel Aleman's presidency. The book focuses on the decade of the 1940s, and analyzes Alemanismo into the early years of the 1950s. Based on a decade of intensive investigation, it is the first broad and substantial study of the political life of the Mexican nation during this period, thus opening a new era to historical investigation. Analytical yet lively, mixing political and cultural history, "Mexico in the 1940s" captures the humour, passion and significance of Mexico during World War II and the post-war years when Mexicans entered the era called "the miracle" because of the nation's economic growth and political stability. Niblo develops the case that the Mexico of today - politically and executively centralized, stressing business and industry, corrupt, ignoring the needs of the majority of the population - has its roots in the decade and a half after 1940. Finally, "Mexico in the 1940s" offers a unique interpretation of Mexican domestic politics in this period, including an explanation of how political leaders were able to reverse the course of the Mexican Revolution in the 1940s; an original interpretation of corruption in Mexican political life, a phenomenon that did not end in the 1940s; and an analysis of the relationship between the US media interests, the Mexican state and the Mexican media companies that still dominate mass communication today.

Reviews

I have not recently picked up a book about twentieth-century Mexico from which I learned so much. * New Mexico Historical Review *
Mexico in the 1940s tells a gripping story of high-level national and international politics that students of Mexico need to read. -- Mary Kay Vaughan, University of Maryland, College Park; author of Cultural Politics in Revolution
Stephen Niblo has recorded startling and fascinating discoveries which flesh out a crucial decade that to date has been largely ignored in Mexican historical studies. -- Paul Vanderwood
Niblo uses a wide range of sources to pull together a clear and meaningful presentation of key personalities and events of the time. Especially helpful for graduate students and those who seek to understand the complex and often contradictory movement known as the Mexican Revolution. * Choice Reviews *
Niblo provides the reader with a detailed picture of personal and political relationships, scandals and corruption, electoral fraud and violence, and politics and policy in the Mexico of the 1940s. * The Historian *