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Zusatztext "Based on a mass of evidence, clearly structured and argued, A Pueblo Divided offers a lively and informative analysis of Papantla's vanilla boom and its many repercussions. This is an impressive and original study of an important topic, hitherto rather poorly understood, now, thanks to Kour and his indefatigable research, made accessible to students of Mexican History. It fills a significant gap." Informationen zum Autor Emilio Kour is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Katz Center for Mexican Studies at the University of Chicago. Klappentext A Pueblo Divided tells the story of the violent privatization of communal land in Papantla, a Mexican Indian village transformed by the fast growth of vanilla production and exports in the late nineteenth century. The demise of communal landholding, long identified as one of the leading causes of the Revolution of 1910, is one of the grand motifs of Mexico's modern history. It is also, surprisingly, one of the least researched. This is the first study of the process of village land privatization in Mexico. It describes how a complex interplay of commercial, political, demographic, fiscal, and legal pressures led to social strife, rebellion, and finally parcelization. Disproving long-held assumptions that indigenous villagers were passive participants in the process, the author shows that they actually played a crucial role in the subdivision of communal property. Papantla's story is at odds with prevailing stereotypes of pueblo history, and thus points to the need for a broad reexamination of the causes, process, and consequences of rural social change in pre-revolutionary Mexico. Zusammenfassung This book is a history of the conflict-ridden privatization of communal land in the pueblo of Papantla, a Mexican Indian village transformed by the fast growth of vanilla production and exports in the second half of the 19th century.
Report
"A Pueblo Divided rethinks the history of Mexico during the nineteenth century from the perspective of one community. Its great innovation is to see evolving divisions and integrations within indigenous Papantla in the context of both the production of vanilla for a developing Atlantic export economy and the consolidation of the 'liberal' state via land privatizations and political interventions. Detailing the political and economic complexities of Papantla in Atlantic and Mexican national contexts simultaneously, Kour offers a model history." John Tutino Georgetown University
