At the beginning of his masterful work of scholarship and narration, Paul Gillingham writes, from its outset “Mexico was more profoundly, globally hybrid than anywhere else in the prior history of the world.” Over the ensuing five centuries, Mexicans have prefigured and shaped the course of human lives across the globe.

Gillingham begins in 1511 with the dramatic shipwreck of two Spanish sailors in the far south of Mexico. Ten years later Hernán Cortés led an army of European adventurers and indigenous rebels to seize the legendary island city of Tenochtitlán, the center of Montezuma’s empire, the largest in the Americas. The capture of the future Mexico City was, more than an extraordinary military event, the collision of two long-separated worlds, radically different in everything from biota to urban planning. Spaniards discovered tomatoes, chocolate, and a city larger and more sophisticated than anything they had ever seen. Mexicans discovered horses, wheels, and lethal germs, sparking a cataclysmic century of disease that wiped out a majority of the pre-existing population and led to a unique recombination of European and indigenous cultures. The industrial mining of Mexico’s silver transformed the wealth and trade of the world. Mexico’s independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821 led to a calamitous mid-century war with the United States and one of the first great social revolutions that brought peace for Mexicans throughout many of the global horrors of the 20th century, before the country itself collapsed into the violence of the cartels and a refugee crisis in the 2000s.

The history of Mexico has been, Gillingham shows, one of suffering empire but also of overcoming. Through it all the country set new standards for inclusivity, for progressive social policies, for artistic expression, for adroitly balancing dictatorship and democracy. While racial divides endured, so too did indigenous peoples, who enjoyed rights unthinkable in the United States. Mexico was among the first countries to abolish slavery in 1829, and Mexicans elected North America’s first Black president, Vicente Guerrero, its only indigenous president, Benito Juárez, and its only woman president, Claudia Sheinbaum.

As elegantly written as it is powerful in scope, rich in character and anecdote, Mexico uses the latest research to dazzling effect, showing how often Mexico has been a dynamic and vital shaper of world affairs.

Praise for Unrevolutionary Mexico:

Honorable Mention for the Howard F. Cline Book Prize in Mexican History, Sponsored by the Latin American Studies Association

“Groundbreaking . . . Gillingham is tireless in his delivery of decades of research and interpretation—skip a page at the peril of missing something genuinely important . . . Written clearly and argued compellingly.”—Sarah Osten, Hispanic American Historical Review

“This is the best history I know about how Mexican politics, national and provincial, changed from ‘revolutionary’ to ‘unrevolutionary’ between 1940 and 1958. The research is solid and deep. The details are rich. The writing is lively and pungent. I recommend the book most highly to all seriously interested in the Mexico that gave way to Mexico now.”—John Womack Jr, author of Zapata and the Mexican Revolution

“Displaying sharp insight and meticulous original research, Unrevolutionary Mexico traces Mexico’s crucial transition from popular revolution to the distinct and durable regime of the PRI. Richly detailed and readable, the book expertly explores grassroots violence, bossism, graft and electoral shenanigans. To read it is to be present in the creation of a unique political system that set its indelible stamp on modern Mexico.”—Alan Knight, author of The Mexican Revolution

“Gillingham’s multi-regional approach masterfully teases out the roots of Mexico’s post-revolutionary ‘soft’ dictatorship (dictablanda), analyzing its complex blend of authoritarian and democratic practices in two contrasting provincial states, Veracruz and Guerrero, as it lurched toward greater political stability, civilian rule, and economic development during the pivotal 1945–55 decade.”—Heather Fowler-Salamini, author of Women Workers, Entrepreneurs and the Mexican Revolution: The Coffee Culture of Córdoba, Veracruz

“This is the best account of the peak and decline of the PRI, Mexico’s long ruling, purportedly revolutionary party. Unrevolutionary Mexico reveals that Mexico’s democratic transition began with surprisingly competitive elections in the 1940s. At the same time, it shows how the economic Mexican Miracle was based in part on the exploitation of peasants via fixed rents and labor drafts. This is required and quite enjoyable reading for modern Mexicanists.”—Ben Fallaw, author of Religion and State Formation in Postrevolutionary Mexico