Peter Guardino is Professor in the Department of History at Indiana University.
“Like so much of the best recent scholarship, The Dead March
incorporates the work of Mexican historians and anthropologists in
a story that involves far more than military strategy, diplomatic
maneuvering, and American political intrigue. At its core, The Dead
March is a social and cultural history of the Mexican and American
armies and the societies that produced them, particularly their
assumptions about race, masculinity, and religion…A book studded
with arresting insights and convincing observations.”—James Oakes,
New York Review of Books
“Guardino’s narratives of military engagements are captivating…His
close attention to the human tragedy of the ‘dead march’ offers a
model of how students of military history might investigate such
conflicts in the future.”—Jocelyn Olcott, American Historical
Review
“Superb…The Dead March is a remarkable achievement, by far the best
general account of the war now available. It is critical,
insightful, and rooted in a wealth of archival sources; it brings
far more of the Mexican experience than any other work not
specifically focused on Mexico; and it clearly demonstrates the
social and cultural dynamics that shaped Mexican and American
politics and military force.”—Samuel J. Watson, Journal of American
History
“A superb account of events leading up to the war on both sides and
to the war itself.”—Barbara A. Tenenbaum, The Americas
“Presents a comprehensive and exciting New Military History that
portrays the conflict from the point of view of ordinary people on
both sides…This excellent work, suitable for U.S. and Mexican
scholars, students, and wider readers, resets our evaluation of the
US–Mexican War. The Dead March reveals a North America more similar
and sisterly than historians have generally shown.”—Stephen
Neufeld, Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean
Studies
“Both thought-provoking and highly engaging. Drawing heavily from
the letters, journals, and memoirs of participants, this social
history humanizes the combatants and promotes a deeper
understanding of the common soldier and civilian than perhaps any
other previous work.”—Michael Scott Van Wagenen, Hispanic American
Historical Review
“A masterful telling of the Mexican-American War…[It] is written in
such a way that it will be appealing to all readers. Scholars will
benefit from Peter Guardino’s immense expertise in both U.S. and
Mexican history and from the book’s complex interwoven arguments
concerning issues of race, religion, and gender.”—Maria Angela
Diaz, Journal of the Civil War Era
“Guardino’s work offers much more than a general survey of the
Mexican-American War. By delving into how the war’s participants
reacted to social issues and how these issues influenced the
outcome of the war, The Dead March provides scholars with a unique
perspective on the war as experienced by common soldiers and
civilians. Guardino’s discussion of the Mexican perspective of the
war yields a nice addition to a field that is largely dominated by
works that examine the war from an American perspective.”—Brady L.
Holley, Journal of Military History
“The history of a war of expansion and empire that reverberates
today in talk of border walls and deportation. Viewed through a
retrospective lens, the American invasion of Mexico in 1846, an act
of single-sided aggression, has eerie parallels with later
incursions in Vietnam and Iraq. For one thing, all were adventures
that enjoyed public support at first but that lost backing as time
wore on. It was also precipitated, writes Guardino in this
vigorous, readable account, by an American president who ‘had to
hide crucial information and engage in intense partisan maneuvering
to start the war.’…In a narrative that blends set-piece accounts of
battle, profiles of individual combatants, and wide-ranging
explorations of larger issues, Guardino examines the inevitability
of American victory, which proved Pyrrhic. Some of our received
wisdom about the conflict, he argues, does not hold up…The
Mexican-American War is too little studied today. Guardino’s
swift-moving, broad-ranging history is a welcome remedy.”—Kirkus
Reviews
“The U.S. war with Mexico (1846–48), an often overlooked part of
American history, had a huge impact on the development of both
countries. Guardino presents the story of the war through the eyes
of common soldiers in Mexican and American armies… Guardino
presents a balanced and deeper understanding of the war,
challenging readers to determine why and how America triumphed and
the long-term ramifications for both countries.”—Michael C. Miller,
Library Journal
“By examining the motivations and viewpoints of fighters on both
sides, Guardino presents a balanced and deeper understanding of the
war, challenging readers to determine why and how America triumphed
and the long-term ramifications for both countries…Extremely
well-researched and highly readable.”—Publishers Weekly
“The Dead March builds a wonderful, sustained case for the deep
similarities between the two countries, their struggles, and the
circumstances of their fighting men. The material on both armies is
superb. We are given marvelously lucid, textured, and probing
explanations for why and how men came to serve in these armies; how
they were viewed by their countrymen and women; what they
experienced on march and in camp. The narrative of particular
battles and confrontations is engrossing and illuminating. And the
military history is surrounded by smart, compelling, analytic
sections on a host of important topics. This book sets the new
standard for histories of the war that cost Mexico half its
national territory.”—Brian DeLay, author of War of a Thousand
Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.–Mexican War
“Guardino breaks new ground and offers novel information about the
day-to-day reality of the war. By featuring the lived experience of
the soldiers and ordinary people who took part in the
conflagration, Guardino gives us a more realistic view of Mexico
and the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century,
correcting widely held but ultimately unwarranted assumptions about
vast political and military discrepancies between the two nations.
In short, this book constitutes the most insightful and balanced
treatment of the war that I know of.”—Andrés Reséndez, author of
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in
America
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