Bücher von Linda B. Hall

A study in conflict between a powerful industry and a struggling nation: "e;This fine monograph . . . addresses an important issue in Mexican history."e; -The AmericasMexico was second only to the United States as the world's largest oil producer in the years following the Mexican Revolution. As the revolutionary government became institutionalized, it sought to assure its control of Mexico's oil resources through the Constitution of 1917, which returned subsoil rights to the nation. This comprehensive study explores the resulting struggle between oil producers, many of which were U.S. companies, and the Mexican government. Linda Hall goes beyond the diplomacy to look at the direct impact of a powerful, highly profitable foreign-controlled industry on a government and a nation trying to recover from a major civil war. She draws on extensive research in Mexican archives, including both government sources and the private papers of Presidents Alvaro Obregon and Plutarco Elias Calles, as well as U.S. government and private sources. In the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement's expansion of United States business ties to Mexico, this study of a crucial moment in U.S.-Mexican business relations will be of interest to a wide audience in business, diplomatic, and political history.

The Mexican Revolution produced some romantic and heroic figures. In Mexico at the time, however, one man loomed large as the embodiment of revolutionary goals and the one leader able to take the country from strife into peace. That man was Alvaro Obregón. Less well-known to North Americans than his contemporaries and sometime allies Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, Obregón eventually formed the first stable government of post-revolutionary Mexico. Stories of his daring and near-invincibility abounded as he led revolutionary forces against the usurper Huerta, then against the "bandit" elements within the Revolution itself. Throughout the period of fighting, however, Obregón was shrewdly building coalitions of support and espousing concrete programs that would allow him to institutionalize power when the fighting ended. This political and social study of Obregón's rise to power, based on extensive archival research and interviews with revolutionary participants, provides an important perspective not only on the Revolution itself but also on its consolidation in the hands of an extraordinary leader. Students of Mexican history will find the book indispensable; others will find it a fascinating story of a man, a people, and how they lay the bases of peace in the midst of war.