One of the most interesting books I have ever read on Mexico, for not only is it a travel book of rare charm and discernment but it is a challenging study of economic and political conditions. The author spends six months in Mexico and shares his enthusiasm for the beauties of Mexico, City, town, village and countryside, with his readers. At the same time, he gives one a better understanding of the contrasts in old Mexico and new, of the successive strata of Spanish, French, Indian, Mexican and American civilizations, of the inner conflicts with Labor now on top, and of the inability, through the very contradictions of the Mexican and Indian character, to make the most of the opportunity. The position of the church, the position of capital, foreign and domestic, the social contradictions -- all at war, one with the other, and resulting in the present conditions. This book should form a groundwork for reading not only of every prospective visitor to Mexico, and of every visitor interested through past experience, but to all business men whose relations with Mexico indicate a crying need for better understanding.