On the Periphery of Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Sonora and Sinaloa by Voss, Stuart F - 1982

xv+317 pages with maps, bibliography and index. Royal octavo (9 1/4" x 6 1/4") bound in original publisher's green cloth with gilt lettering to spine and front cover in original jacket. First edition. When Mexico won its independence in the second decade of the nineteenth century, it could hardly have been considered a unified country. Indeed, regions peripheral to the center of Mexican society had to weigh the advantages of gravitating toward alternative, neighboring cultures - which in the case of sonora and Sinaloa meant the expanding United States. Stuart Voss examines the complex interactions of politics and economics that prevailed in this region up to the rise of Porfirio Diaz. Isolated from the rest of the nation, Sonora and Sinaloa were controlled by powerful groups of urban notables who sought economic progress and cultural refinement for the regions which served as their seats of power. Yet these ambitions were frustrated by that very isolation, and the states were eventually forced into accommodation with Mexico City in order to take their place in national framework. More than an historical recounting, Voss's study demonstrates how a regional historical experience takes shape and the must contend with - and adjust to - changes in the larger historical patterns within which it must evolve. Condition: Jacket spine sunned else a fine copy in a near fine jacket.