17 - Mexico since 1946

Summary

There is not yet an extensive historiographical literature on Mexico in the period after 1946 because of both its proximity to the present day and the absence of epic events. Nor is there a longstanding tradition of political or public memoirs, though that may be in an incipient phase. For a general overview, see Michael C. Meyer and William L. Sherman, The Course of Mexican History, now in its fourth edition (New York, 1991). Interpretive studies of Mexican politics include Daniel Levy and Gabriel Székely, Mexico: Paradoxes of Stability and Change (Boulder, Colo., 1983; revised ed., 1987); Roberto Newell and Luis Rubio, Mexico’s Dilemma: The Political Origins of Economic Crisis (Boulder, Colo., 1984); and Roderic A. Camp (ed.), Mexico’s Political Stability: The Next Five Years (Boulder, Colo., 1986). Alan Riding’s journalistic account, Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans (New York, 1985), is informative but highly controversial. Earlier analyses include José Luis Reyna and Richard S. Weinert (eds.), Authoritarianism in Mexico (Philadelphia, 1977), and Miguel Basáñez, La lucha por la hegemonía en Mexico, 1968–1980 (México, D.F., 1981).

Standard works on the political system by North Americans include Robert E. Scott, Mexican Government in Transition (Urbana, Ill., 1958; 2nd ed., 1964); Frank R. Brandenburg, The Making of Modern Mexico (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1964); L. Vincent Padgett, The Mexican Political System (Boston, 1966; rev. ed., 1976); Kenneth F. Johnson, Mexican Democracy: A Critical View (Boston, 1971; 3rd rev. ed., 1984); Nora Hamilton, The Limits of State Autonomy: Post-Revolutionary Mexico (Princeton, N.J., 1982);