From Publishers Weekly
The Mexican Revolution began in 1910 and lasted for over a decade, a bloody and confusing saga of betrayal, corruption, misshapen politics and mislaid trusts that, in the end, accomplished little for lower- and lower-middle class Mexicans. Historian and biographer McLynn (Carl Gustav Jung; etc.) reconstructs the revolution through the biographies of its two most important figures, Francisco (Pancho) Villa, the bandit-turned-revolutionary, and Emiliano Zapata, whose declaration, "It's better to die on our feet than to live on our knees," later became La Pasionaria's Spanish Civil War slogan. Comprehensive almost to a fault, McLynn also devotes many pages to other key players: the revolution's first leader, Francisco Madero, who, having defeated President Porfirio D¡az, stopped short of killing the president and members of the fallen government; and the ambitious Pascual Orozco, a controversial revolutionary figure believed by some (his pal Villa later among them) to have been on D¡az's payroll. Having moved briskly and clearly through the disorganization and obfuscation of one of the bloodiest (and longest) revolutions in history, the author makes this informative, insightful study even more compelling with his witty and fluid prose. In his exhaustive research, McLynn plumbed "the ranks of the apocrypha," compared conservative histories to liberal ones and accounted for trends (economic, cultural, agricultural, industrial) concurrent with and pertinent to the revolution. McLynn grasps so completely and communicates so deftly the nuances of government corruption, the U.S. stance toward a long succession of Mexican autocrats, infighting between Zapatistas and Villistas, that this book feels less like a history than a great story, as exciting as a Saturday serial Western. Three maps, 16 pages b&w photos. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In a rare accomplishment, McLynn, a biographer of Sir Richard Burton, Carl Jung, and Napoleon, here presents his topic in a logical and understandable manner for almost every level of reader while also incorporating the latest research. While claiming to be writing a dual biography of Mexican rebel-outlaws Francisco (Pancho) Villa and Emiliano Zapata, McLynn has actually produced a judicious analytical account of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-20. He discusses the roles of the U.S. government, Gen. John J. Pershing's troops, German secret agents, and corrupt Mexican officials, drawing on a wide reading of English and Spanish studies and document collections. At the same time, his narrative is lively and gripping, leading the reader into this thoughtful study. Students and instructors of Mexican history at all levels will find the bibliographical essay invaluable. This belongs in all libraries whose patrons have even the most casual interest in Mexican history. Stephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Revolutions, even those begun for the noblest of causes, are not pretty, often unleashing convulsive forces and unforeseen consequences. The Mexican Revolution began in 1910 as an effort by liberal-minded democrats to overthrow the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. When it ended a decade later, virtually all the major revolutionary leaders had been assassinated, and Mexico was moving toward eventual one-party dictatorship. McLynn is a biographer and professor of literature. In his recounting of this turbulent era, he has focused on perhaps the two most charismatic leaders of the revolution, Francisco "Pancho" Villa and Emiliano Zapata. As revealed here, both are more complicated and interesting than their usual popular images. Villa, often portrayed as a buffoon and bandit, had serious, if impractical aspirations for social reform. Zapata, often portrayed as a saintly agrarian reformer, could be rigid, autocratic, and intolerant of opposing views. In McLynn's view, the inability of the two to work together prolonged the agony of Mexico and steered the revolution in an unexpected direction. An absorbing and often heartbreaking saga. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Recounting the decade of bloody events that followed the eruption of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, Villa and Zapata explores the regional, international, cultural, racial, and economic strife that made the rebels Francisco (Pancho) Villa and Emiliano Zapata legends. Throughout this volume drama colludes with history, in a tale of two social outlaws who became legendary national heroes, yet—despite their triumph and only meeting, in 1914, in the Mexican capital—failed to make common cause and ultimately fell victim to intrigues more treacherous than their own. 16 pages of black-and-white photographs bring this gripping narrative to life. "McLynn ... tells it so well ... you can hear the strains of he Mexican patriotic standard ‘Zacatecas’ as you read it."—Austin American-Statesman "An admirably clear account of the chaos of revolution, its rivalries and bloody struggles...."—The Spectator "Informative and insightful ... feels less like a history than a great story, as exciting as a Saturday serial Western."—Publishers Weekly
Villa and Zapata: A History of the Mexican Revolution FROM THE PUBLISHER
At once a history of the revolution in Mexico and a dual biography of the two men who shaped it, Villa and Zapata chronicles a decade of turbulent events that involved not only native rebels and corrupt Mexican politicos but also the U.S. government, American oil interests, "Blackjack" Pershing's troops, and German secret agents. Separately - the ruthless Pancho Villa and his mobile army of ex-cowboys and ranchers in the north and Emiliano Zapata with an infantry recruited from the peons on the sugar plantations in the south - the revolutionaries waged a devastating war on two fronts and successfully brought down a string of autocrats in Mexico City.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
The Mexican Revolution began in 1910 and lasted for over a decade, a bloody and confusing saga of betrayal, corruption, misshapen politics and mislaid trusts that, in the end, accomplished little for lower- and lower-middle class Mexicans. Historian and biographer McLynn (Carl Gustav Jung; etc.) reconstructs the revolution through the biographies of its two most important figures, Francisco (Pancho) Villa, the bandit-turned-revolutionary, and Emiliano Zapata, whose declaration, "It's better to die on our feet than to live on our knees," later became La Pasionaria's Spanish Civil War slogan. Comprehensive almost to a fault, McLynn also devotes many pages to other key players: the revolution's first leader, Francisco Madero, who, having defeated President Porfirio D!az, stopped short of killing the president and members of the fallen government; and the ambitious Pascual Orozco, a controversial revolutionary figure believed by some (his pal Villa later among them) to have been on D!az's payroll. Having moved briskly and clearly through the disorganization and obfuscation of one of the bloodiest (and longest) revolutions in history, the author makes this informative, insightful study even more compelling with his witty and fluid prose. In his exhaustive research, McLynn plumbed "the ranks of the apocrypha," compared conservative histories to liberal ones and accounted for trends (economic, cultural, agricultural, industrial) concurrent with and pertinent to the revolution. McLynn grasps so completely and communicates so deftly the nuances of government corruption, the U.S. stance toward a long succession of Mexican autocrats, infighting between Zapatistas and Villistas, that this book feelsless like a history than a great story, as exciting as a Saturday serial Western. Three maps, 16 pages b&w photos. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
In a rare accomplishment, McLynn, a biographer of Sir Richard Burton, Carl Jung, and Napoleon, here presents his topic in a logical and understandable manner for almost every level of reader while also incorporating the latest research. While claiming to be writing a dual biography of Mexican rebel-outlaws Francisco (Pancho) Villa and Emiliano Zapata, McLynn has actually produced a judicious analytical account of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-20. He discusses the roles of the U.S. government, Gen. John J. Pershing's troops, German secret agents, and corrupt Mexican officials, drawing on a wide reading of English and Spanish studies and document collections. At the same time, his narrative is lively and gripping, leading the reader into this thoughtful study. Students and instructors of Mexican history at all levels will find the bibliographical essay invaluable. This belongs in all libraries whose patrons have even the most casual interest in Mexican history. Stephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Villa rides again, but this horse limps. At the outset, heavily published pop biographer McLynn (Carl Gustav Jung, 1997, etc.) points to three books that he calls a "lodestar" in studying the lives of Mexican revolutionaries Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata: Alan Knight's two-volume Mexican Revolution, John Womack's Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, and Friedrich Katz's recently published Life and Times of Pancho Villa. He is right to rely on those books, which historians regard as standard texts. Sadly, he hasn't done much with this densely written tome to match their accomplishments, except, as an English writer, to add some side notes on Winston Churchill's curious involvement in the internal affairs of faraway Mexico. (Churchill had his reasons: after all, McLynn notes, the British held 55 percent of all foreign investments in Latin America, and 29 percent of foreign investments in Mexico.) As befits a student of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, McLynn has a tendency to psychologize when writing about the likes of Porfirio Diaz and Francisco Madero, who, admittedly, had their issues. He captures well the infighting, personal as much as political in nature, which complicated the Mexican Revolution, as well as the international intrigues surrounding a decade of civil war. But while he gives a serviceable account of the lives of Villa and Zapata, among other revolutionary leaders, McLynn omits several important players and factions in the Revolution, makes frequent misstatements of fact (McLynn: "Like the Plains Indians of North America, the Mexican Indians never made common cause against their white rulers," and he's wrong about both), and offers dubious interpretations ofthe historical record. All in all, an amateurish entry in a literature already dominated by outstanding professional work.
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