A Revolution Unfinished - Mexican Experience by Colby Ristow Paperback

About the Book

"A Revolution Unfinished examines the mobilization and subsequent repression of the Chegomista Rebellion of 1911"--

Book Synopsis

In October 1911 the governor of Oaxaca, Mexico, ordered a detachment of approximately 250 soldiers to take control of the town of Juchitán from Jose F. "Che" Gomez and a movement defending the principle of popular sovereignty. The standoff between federal soldiers and the Chegomistas continued until federal reinforcements arrived and violently repressed the movement in the name of democracy.

In A Revolution Unfinished Colby Ristow provides the first book-length study of what has come to be known as the Chegomista Rebellion, shedding new light on a conflict previously lost in the shadows of the concurrent Zapatista uprising. The study examines the limits of democracy under Mexico's first revolutionary regime through a detailed analysis of the confrontation between Mexico's nineteenth-century tradition of moderate liberalism and locally constructed popular liberalism in the politics of Juchitán, Oaxaca.

Couched in the context of local, state, and national politics at the beginning of the revolution, the study draws on an array of local, national, and international archival and newspaper sources to provide a dramatic day-by-day description of the Chegomista Rebellion and the events preceding it. Ristow links the events in Juchitán with historical themes such as popular politics, ethnicity, and revolutionary state formation and strips away the romanticism of previous studies of Juchitán, offering a window into the mechanics of late Porfirian state-society relations and early revolutionary governance.

Review Quotes

"[A Revolution Unfinished] is a compelling and convincing read and represents a significant contribution to our understanding of Mexico's modern political history."--Thomas Rath, H-LatAm

"[A] carefully considered investigation. . . . Ristow clearly has a talent for historical narrative."--Francie Chassen-Lopez, author of From Liberal to Revolutionary Oaxaca: The View from the South, Mexico 1867-1911-- (3/5/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"A perceptive 'micro-history' that also tells us a great deal about the macro-history of the Mexican Revolution."--Alan Knight, author of The Mexican Revolution: A Very Short Introduction-- (3/5/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"Extremely original and innovative. . . . There are no books that flag the mechanics and paradoxes of Juchiteco politics in such an elegant, fine-grained, and sharp manner."--Benjamin Smith, author of The Roots of Conservatism in Mexico: Catholicism, Society, and Politics in the Mixteca Baja, 1750-1962-- (3/5/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"Ristow's new work is an engaging, eminently readable investigation of the brief period when many revolutions seemed possible. He illuminates the continuities in elite political ideology, if not elites themselves, across the revolutionary divide while emphasizing the new impossibility of ignoring popular mobilization."--Casey Marina Lurtz, Hispanic American Historical Review

About the Author

Colby Ristow is an associate professor of history at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.