WAR ON THE BORDER

A tightly focused history of the relations between the U.S. and Mexico in the early 20th century.

Guinn, a Texas-based author of books about the O.K. Corral, Bonnie and Clyde, and other relevant topics, begins on March 8, 1916, as Pancho Villa prepares to attack Columbus, New Mexico, a border town with a small military base. The author then steps back to give a cogent analysis of the broader context on both sides of the border. Since 1825, when American officials first recognized the Mexican republic, the U.S. had been the dominant partner in the relationship, annexing large swaths of territory. An editorial in the New York Herald in 1845 noted that Mexico should “learn to love her ravishers.” While Americans treated Mexicans living in the U.S. no better than African Americans, they saw Mexico itself as a profitable site for investments, especially under Porfirio Díaz, who served as Mexico’s president from 1877 to 1880 and 1884 to 1911. In 1910, Francisco Madero ran against Díaz, promising to end the country’s severe wealth inequality, only to end up in jail. Madero escaped to the U.S. and began a revolution. He was shortly joined by the then-unknown Villa, “whose background was questionable but whose fighting skills were exceptional.” Villa quickly became an important player in the wildly fluctuating political environment. His raids into the U.S. and on American interests in Mexico led to reprisals, especially the “Punitive Expedition” of 1916 led by Gen. John J. Pershing. All this was complicated by German attempts to keep the U.S. occupied on its southern border to keep it out of World War I, then raging in Europe. As he demonstrated in previous books, Guinn is an engaging storyteller, and he presents an impressively clear narrative of a significant piece of border history.

A riveting account of a dynamic period featuring larger-than-life characters and plenty of drama and suspense.