"Land without chimneys; or, the byways of Mexico" by Alfred Oscar Coffin. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

The story of how the multicultural identity of San Antonio, Texas, has been shaped and polished through its annual fiesta since the late nineteenth century.

Featuring a new preface by the author, this brilliant and eminently readable cultural history looks at Mexican life during the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, from 1876 to 1911. At that time the modernization that Mexico underwent produced a fierce struggle between the traditional and the new, exacerbating class antagonisms in the process. The noted historian William H. Beezley illuminates many facets of everyday Mexican life lying at the heart of this conflict and change, including sports, storytelling, health care, technology, and the traditional Easter?time Judas burnings that became a primary focus of strife during those years. This updated volume provides a teacher’s guide, available on the University of Nebraska Press website, offering a manual of internet links, additional readings, and practice experiences that can be used in the classroom or by anyone who wants to go beyond the chapters of this book. Download the discussion guide.

A history of the Chicano community cannot be complete without taking into account the United States' domination of the Mexican economy beginning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, writes Gilbert G. González. For that economic conquest inspired U.S. writers to create a "culture of empire" that legitimated American dominance by portraying Mexicans and Mexican immigrants as childlike "peons" in need of foreign tutelage, incapable of modernizing without Americanizing, that is, submitting to the control of U.S. capital. So powerful was and is the culture of empire that its messages about Mexicans shaped U.S. public policy, particularly in education, throughout the twentieth century and even into the twenty-first. In this stimulating history, Gilbert G. González traces the development of the culture of empire and its effects on U.S. attitudes and policies toward Mexican immigrants. Following a discussion of the United States' economic conquest of the Mexican economy, González examines several hundred pieces of writing by American missionaries, diplomats, business people, journalists, academics, travelers, and others who together created the stereotype of the Mexican peon and the perception of a "Mexican problem." He then fully and insightfully discusses how this misinformation has shaped decades of U.S. public policy toward Mexican immigrants and the Chicano (now Latino) community, especially in terms of the way university training of school superintendents, teachers, and counselors drew on this literature in forming the educational practices that have long been applied to the Mexican immigrant community.

In this enlightening book, the well-known historian William Beezley contends that a Mexican national identity was forged during the nineteenth century not by a self-anointed elite but rather by a disparate mix of ordinary people and everyday events. In examining independence festivals, children’s games, annual almanacs, and the performances of itinerant puppet theaters, Beezley argues that these seemingly unrelated and commonplace occurrences—not the far more self-conscious and organized efforts of politicians, teachers, and others—created a far-reaching sense of a new nation. In the century that followed Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, Beezley maintains, sentiments of nationality were promulgated by people who were concerned not with the promotion of nationalism but with something far more immediate—the need to earn a living. These peddlers, vendors, actors, artisans, writers, publishers, and puppeteers sought widespread popular appeal so that they could earn money. According to Beezley, they constantly refined their performances, as well as the symbols and images they employed, in order to secure larger revenues. Gradually they discovered the stories, acts, and products that attracted the largest numbers of paying customers. As Beezley convincingly asserts, out of “what sold to the masses” a collective national identity slowly emerged. Mexican National Identity makes an important contribution to the growing body of literature that explores the influences of popular culture on issues of national identity. By looking at identity as it was fashioned “in the streets,” it opens new avenues for exploring identity formation more generally, not just in Mexico and Latin American countries but in every nation. Check out the New Books in History Interview with Bill Beezley!

Demonstrates that US travelers abroad were not limited to the rich and privileged even in previous centuries, by presenting over 2,000 titles with full bibliographic citations and brief evaluative descriptions. Arranged alphabetically by author and indexed by place and author's occupation. Updated from the 1969 edition with titles subsequently discovered. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Part I. The balance of order and disorder -- 1. Ambitious bandits: disorder equals progress -- 2. The aura of the king -- 3. The spoils of independence -- 4. Bent on being modern -- 5. Bandits into police, and vice versa -- Part II. Toward the Western model -- 6. Order, disorder, and development -- 7. The limits to dictatorship -- 8. A kind of peace -- Part III. A political police performance -- 9. Constabulary of campesinos and artisans -- 10. The president's police -- 11. It's the image that counts -- Part IV. Demons of revolution unleashed -- 12. The rollercoaster called capitalism-- 13. Unraveling the old regime -- 14. Disorder in search of order.