Abstract
Roldán Vera offers an analysis of representations of the US–Mexican War in nineteenth-century Mexican and US history textbooks. Initially, she demonstrates, representations of the war were similar in the two countries, but over time American textbooks began to present the American victory as inevitable, while Mexican textbooks continue to insist on the contingency of historical events. Positing that the time between the occurrence of historical events and their narration affects the ways in which those events are observed, Roldán Vera shows that as the power of the US and Mexico became increasingly asymmetrical after the war, the explanations offered for the war in the two countries also evolved.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Textbooks Referenced
US Textbooks
Eggleston, Edward. 1888. A History of the United States and Its People for the Use of Schools. New York: Appleton. Further editions 1890, 1891.
———. 1889. A First Book in American History, with Special Reference to the Lives and Deeds of Great Americans. New York: Appleton and Co. Further editions 1915, 1917, 1920.
Goodrich, S. J. 1852. Pictorial History of the United States, with Notices of Other Portions of America. For the Use of Schools. Rev. ed. New York: F. J. Huntington, and Mason & Law, 23 Park Road. Further editions 1854, 1857.
Lossing, Benson J. 1854. A Pictorial History of the United States for Schools and Families. Illustrated with over 200 Engravings. New York: F. J. Huntington. Further editions 1857, 1866, 1867, 1868.
Quackenbos, George Payn. 1857. Illustrated School History of the United States and the Adjacent Parts of America, from the Earliest Discoveries to the Present Time: Embracing a Full Account of the Aborigines; Biographical Notices of Distinguished Men; Numerous Maps, Plans of Battle-Fields, and Pictorial Illustrations; and Other Features Calculated to Give our Youth Correct Ideas of their Country’s Past and Present, and a Taste for General Historical Reading. New York: Appleton and Co. Further editions 1864, 1873.
Swinton, William. 1874. First Lessons in our Country’s History: Bringing Out Its Salient Points, and Aiming to Combine Simplicity with Sense. New York and Chicago: Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor and Co.
Willson, Marcius. 1847. History of the United States, Comprising Historical Sketches of the Indian Tribes; a Description of American Antiquities, with an Inquiry into Their Origin and the Origin of the Indian Tribes; with Appendices showing Its Connection with European History; History of the Present British Provinces; History of Mexico; and History of Texas, Brought Down to the Time of Its Admission into the American Union. Cincinnati: William H. Moore and Co.
Mexican Textbooks
Arróniz, Marcos. 1858. Manual de historia y cronología de Méjico. Paris: Librería de Rosa y Bouret.
García Cubas, Antonio. 1890. Compendio de la historia de México y de su civilización para uso de los establecimientos de instrucción primaria. Mexico City: Imprenta del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús. Further editions 1893, 1901, 1906.
Payno, Manuel. 1870. Compendio de la historia de México; para el uso de los establecimientos de instrucción primaria. Mexico City: Imprenta de F. Díaz de León y Santiago White. Further editions 1871, 1874, 1876, 1878, 1880, 1882, 1886, 1889, 1891, 1901, 1902.
Prieto, Guillermo. 1886. Lecciones de historia patria, escritas para los alumnos del Colegio Miligar. Mexico City: Ofic. Tip. de la Sria. de Fomento. Further editions 1890, 1891, 1893, 1896.
Roa Bárcena, José María. 1862. Catecismo elemental de la historia de México; desde su fundación hasta mediados del siglo XIX, formao con vista de las mejores obras y propio para servir de texto a la enseñanza de este ramo en nuestros establecimientos de instrucción pública. Mexico City: Imprenta de Andrade y Escalante. Further editions 1867, 1870, 1880, 1888, 1885.
Sierra, Justo. 1894a. Catecismo de historia patria. Mexico City: Libr. de la Vda. de Ch. Bouret. Further editions 1921, 1922.
———. 1894b. Elementos de historia patria. Mexico City: Libr. de la Vda. de Ch. Bouret.
Bibliography
Benjamin, Thomas, and Jesús Velasco Márquez. 1997. “The War between the United States and Mexico, 1846–1848.” In Myths, Misdeeds, and Misunderstandings: The Roots of Conflict in US-Mexican Relations, edited by Jaime E. Rodriguez and Kathryn Vincent, 97–124. Wilmington, DE: SR Books.
Carretero, Mario. 2007. Documentos de identidad. La construcción de la memoria histórica en un mundo global. Buenos Aires: Paidós.
Chartier, Anne-Marie. 2008. “¿Con qué historia de la educación debemos formar a los docentes?” Anuario de la Sociedad Argentina de Historia de la Educación 9: 15–38.
Guha, Ranajit. 1983. “The Prose of Counter-Insurgency.” In Subaltern Studies. Vol. 2, edited by Ranajit Guha et al., 1–42. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Johannsen, Robert W. 1986. To the Halls of the Montezumas: The Mexican War in the American Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kraus, Michael, and Davis D. Joyce. 1985. The Writing of American History. Rev. ed. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press.
Renehan, Edward J., Jr. 2007. The Monroe Doctrine: The Cornerstone of American Foreign Policy. New York: Chelsea House.
Rodriguez, Jaime Javier. 2010. The Literatures of the US-Mexican War: Narrative, Time, and Identity. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Roldán Vera, Eugenia. 1996. “Los libros de texto de historia de México.” In Historiografía Mexicana. Vol. 4, edited by Antonia Pi-Suñer Llorens, 491–524. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México: Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas.
The American Review. 1848. “The Mexican War: A History of Its Origins and a Detailed Account of the Victories Which Terminated in the Surrender of the Capital; with the Official Dispatches of the Generals. By Edward D. Mansfield. New York: Barnes & Co., 50 John Street.” Book review in The American Review: Devoted to Politics and Literature 1 (6): 652–53.
Vázquez, Josefina Zoraida. 1999. “La historiografía sobre la guerra entre México y los Estados Unidos.” Histórica 23 (2): 475–85.
White, Hayden. 2008. “The Historical Event.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 19 (2): 9–34.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Roldán Vera, E. (2018). The US-Mexican War (1846–48) in School Textbooks: Mexico and the United States in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century. In: Roldán Vera, E., Fuchs, E. (eds) Textbooks and War. Palgrave Studies in Educational Media. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98803-0_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98803-0_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98802-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-98803-0
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)