THE FORMATION OF MEXICAN NATIONALISM

Gómez-Quiñones, Juan. 1992 460 pgs. ISBN: 0915745232 Includes tables and biblio. $35.00 Price for class use $ 24.00

This book examines the elements of social change, the state, the political discourse, the intellectual expressions of discontent, and the growth of nationalism in Mexico during its colonial times to the present. Organized in 17 chapters this study explores the conceptual assumptions, definitions, ideas, and political tenets of each period as the concept of nationalism (lo mexicano, la patria, nuestro México Querido) evolved through times and periods of change, internal and external wars, discontent and patriotism. This is a research as well as an interpretive work that traces the precursory expressions of nationalism through the 19th century to the structural formation and ideological conditions of nationalism up to 1990s. The author concludes that Mexican nationalism is a reflective historical process that acknowledges the goals of sovereignty, social peace, economic development and integration.