The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, July 1952 - April, 1953 Page: 576
641 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
tributions, "Preconvention Campaign," "The Convention and
the Election," and "The Revolution," reveal a Madero de-
termined to push ahead, not to win a presidency but to educate
the Mexicans in the face of family opposition, persecution,
threats against his life, ridicule, and even against the advice of
his own supporters. Again Madero's strong faith is revealed in
the action of Victoriano Huerta who could find no way to remove
him except by assassination. Madero was murdered, and Cumber-
land places it squarely upon Huerta, not because he was a weak
character but because he was a strong character. "Let us be
clear," he quotes a Huerta follower, "nobody wanted to leave
these dangerous propagandists of violence and anarchy alive ...
their deaths were considered a national necessity." The reviewer
feels that Cumberland had an opportunity to portray Madero in
an entirely new light on the basis of his research here. The ideas
in the second paragraph on page 254 should have been driven
home long before the end of the volume.
In a concluding chapter, "An Evaluation," Cumberland senses
that which, it seems to this reviewer, he should have recognized
throughout the work. Madero did, as the author states, establish
an idea, a concept which is "as concrete as the distribution of land
plots. " He did advance the concept of governmental re-
sponsibility. He did give currency to the idea of land reform
among responsible elements. He did contribute in regard to labor
"an attitude" later made concrete by the revolution. Cumber-
land's impartiality is ,something at which to wonder. He made
an honest effort to gauge the character of the opposition (the
press and the American ambassador are dealt with properly).
Madero's own mistakes and the Mexican environment receive
balanced treatment.
One hesitates to criticize this excellent and well-documented
book. The reviewer, however, feels that there is throughout the
work a fundamental misconception. Because Madero looked upon
himself as a reformer, the author accepted that thesis as character-
istic of this period of Mexican history. The fundamental fact of
the event of 1911, however, is its revolutionary character. One
would hardly speak of Aleksandr Feodorovich Kerenski's regime,
although the parallel is not exact, as the genesis of the Russian
Revolution. The genesis of the Mexican Revolution in its imme-576
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, July 1952 - April, 1953, periodical, 1953; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101145/m1/680/?rotate=270: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.