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Topics in History (492-0-22)

Topic

War and Peace in Mexico

Instructors

Paul Gillingham
847/467-4829
Harris Hall - Room 323

Meeting Info

Harris Hall room 101: Wed 9:30AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

Mexico since first contact between Europeans and indigenous peoples has been a global crossroads, a profoundly cosmopolitan place whose distinguishing historical features are not predictable violence but improbable peace, and not dependence but independence. This seminar examines that history from the early sixteenth to the early twenty-first centuries, combining primary source readings, which range from conquistador chronicles to DEA reports, with recent historiography. Whether thanks to dancing nuns, existentialist revolutionaries or evangelical narcos, Mexico's history of peace and war emerges as radically different from the preconceived.