THE MEXICAN WAR: 1846-1848

by K. Jack Bauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1974

A thorough but colorless history of an unpopular war which dragged on under tight Presidential control. Having shown how the Administration engineered Congress into the conflict, and mapped out the sectional stakes and Manifest Destiny designs (slavery per se was a secondary issue, Bauer argues), the author goes on to depict the chaos of often uncontrollable troops moving across incredible distances commanded by quarrelsome politicized generals, while a nation ""unprepared for a major war"" grew vexed at the lack of decisive victories. To understand who the populations were in the hitherto Mexican regions, and how the discovery of gold affected the outcome, one must look to scholars like T.R. Fehrenbach. And even the strictly tactical dimensions like the Gulf of Mexico naval war fail to come sufficiently alive in the Robert Leckie manner for general readers. For specialists, a required reference to set beside Justin Smith's standard The War in Mexico.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1974

ISBN: 0803261071

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION