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Exploring the Past of the ‘Other’: the Practice of U.S. History in Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2010

Georg Leidenberger
Georg Leidenberger
Affiliation:
Urban Studies Research Group Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-AzcapotzalcoMexico City
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Extract

In the courses on U.S. history I teach in Mexico, this speech by Maine congressman Severance serves well to illustrate arguments of the opposition movement to the U.S.-Mexican War. Severance offers a variety of reasons for his anti-war stand, but to my students I like to emphasize this particular one, for it follows a logic contrary to their nationally-framed perceptions. What Severance suggests here, is that these two countries share a common identity, namely that of being “the two largest republics of the world” based on “the principles of civil liberty and elective government,” and that therefore they ought not to be at war. My insistence on a perspective that views the commonalities of the two countries' historic experiences has been futile, however, when teaching about a war that resulted in the “transfer” - to put it in neutral terms - of over half of Mexico's national territory to the U.S. Students are little impressed by this congressman's (and my own) argumentation and stress instead what divides Mexico and the U.S., not only with regard to this historical event, but also with regard to the countries' pasts as a whole. For instance, in a conference at a university in Toluca, my efforts to make my audience understand the internal dynamics of U.S. foreign policy during the 19th century not only appeared to fall on deaf ears but also provoked nearly hostile reactions.

Type
Essays
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 1 , Special Issue 4: Teaching the GAPE Internationally , October 2002 , pp. 308 - 329
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2002

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