The Life and Times of Pancho Villa

Friedrich Katz

Published by Stanford University Press 1998

The Life and Times of Pancho Villa

Friedrich Katz

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804765176

Overview
Contents

About this book

Alongside Moctezuma and Benito Juárez, Pancho Villa is probably the best-known figure in Mexican history. Villa legends pervade not only Mexico but the United States and beyond, existing not only in the popular mind and tradition but in ballads and movies. There are legends of Villa the Robin Hood, Villa the womanizer, and Villa as the only foreigner who has attacked the mainland of the United States since the War of 1812 and gotten away with it.

Whether exaggerated or true to life, these legends have resulted in Pancho Villa the leader obscuring his revolutionary movement, and the myth in turn obscuring the leader. Based on decades of research in the archives of seven countries, this definitive study of Villa aims to separate myth from history. So much attention has focused on Villa himself that the characteristics of his movement, which is unique in Latin American history and in some ways unique among twentieth-century revolutions, have been forgotten or neglected. Villa’s División del Norte was probably the largest revolutionary army that Latin America ever produced. Moreover, this was one of the few revolutionary movements with which a U.S. administration attempted, not only to come to terms, but even to forge an alliance. In contrast to Lenin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, and Fidel Castro, Villa came from the lower classes of society, had little education, and organized no political party.

The first part of the book deals with Villa’s early life as an outlaw and his emergence as a secondary leader of the Mexican Revolution, and also discusses the special conditions that transformed the state of Chihuahua into a leading center of revolution. In the second part, beginning in 1913, Villa emerges as a national leader. The author analyzes the nature of his revolutionary movement and the impact of Villismo as an ideology and as a social movement. The third part of the book deals with the years 1915 to 1920: Villa’s guerrilla warfare, his attack on Columbus, New Mexico, and his subsequent decline. The last part describes Villa’s surrender, his brief life as a hacendado, his assassination and its aftermath, and the evolution of the Villa legend. The book concludes with an assessment of Villa’s personality and the character and impact of his movement.

Author / Editor information

Friedrich Katz is Morton D. Hull Distinguished Service Professor of Latin American History at the University of Chicago. He is the author or editor of nine books on Mexican history.

Reviews

"Anyone with any interest in Pancho Villa will want to have this book. It is the last word on the subject and will no doubt be the definitive work. . . . You'll be hooked."—Publication of the El Paso County Historical Society

"A splendid work that can be enjoyed by the general reader and by scholars of the period on both sides of the border." —The Journal of American History

A "Best Book of 1998" Library Journal selection "This is the definitive work on Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa.... The work is exhaustively researched and scrupulously documented; it also makes for engrossing reading, as Latin America specialist Katz takes hold of the legend, gives it a good shaking, and comes up with something far more complex."—Library Journal starred review

"A towering new biography.... The research here obviously represents decades of devotion, and it is formidable.... Gives broader perspective on the revolution, one that is sorely needed."—New York Times Book Review

"Friedrich Katz's The Life and Times of Pancho Villa is a masterpiece of contemporary historiography. . . . Diligent, extremely well-documented, fluid and elegant at all times, Friederich Katz presents Mexicans with our ghosts—alive."—Carlos Fuentes Los Angeles Times Book Review

"The lifework of a great historian, this book is without rival as a biography of one of the enigmatic figures of the 20th century. . . . With scrupulous detail and objectivity, and with a fluid narrative style, this is the book on Villa that has long been awaited by both scholars and general readers."—Adolfo Gilly, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Prologue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE From Outlaw to Revolutionary
CHAPTER ONE From the Frontier to the Border Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
CHAPTER TWO The Revolution That Neither Its Supreme Leader Nor Its Opponents Expected. The Chihuahuan Revolution, I9IO-I9II, and the Role of Pancho Villa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
CHAPTER THREE Disillusion and Counterrevolution. Chihuahua, 1912-1913 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
CHAPTER FOUR An Unrequited Love. Villa and Madero, 1912-1913 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
PART TWO From Revolutionary to National Leader
CHAPTER FIVE From Exile to Governor of Chihuahua: The Rise of Villa in 1913 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
CHAPTER SIX Four Weeks. That Shook Chihuahua. Villa's Brief but Far-Reaching Governorship Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
CHAPTER SEVEN The Villista Leaders Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
CHAPTER EIGHT The Division del Norte Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
CHAPTER NINE Villa's Emergence as a National Leader. His Relations with the United States and His Conflict with Carranza Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
CHAPTER TEN The Elusive Search for Peace Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	354
CHAPTER ELEVEN Villismo in Practice Chihuahua Under Villa, 1913-1915 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	397
CHAPTER TWELVE The New Civil War in Mexico. Villismo on the Offensive Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	433
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	487
PART THREE From National Leader to Guerrilla Leader
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Villa's Two- Front War with Carranza and the United States Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	543
CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Resurgence of Villa in 1916-1917 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	583
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Villa's Darkest Years. The Savage and Bloody Guerrilla Struggle in Chihuahua, 1917-1920 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	615
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Villa and the Outside World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	655
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN The Attempt to Create Villismo with a Gentler Face. The Return of Felipe Angeles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	680
PART FOUR Reconciliation, Peace, and Death Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	717
CHAPTER NINETEEN From Guerrilla Leader to Hacendado Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	717
CHAPTER TWENTY The End and the Survival of Villa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	761
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	795
APPENDIX On the Archival Trail of Pancho Villa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	821
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	837
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	839
Archival Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	911
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	919
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	955

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 1004
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 19
- Other: 19 illustrations
Keywords: History -- Latin American

eBook

Published: October 1, 1998
ISBN: 9780804765176