HIST 258 Mexican Politics in the Twentieth Century

This course offers an introduction to some of the major issues and themes in the political history of twentieth-century Mexico. We will examine a century of Mexican history, covering the late 19th century authoritarian regime of President Porfirio Diaz the Mexican Revolution the post-revolutionary corporatist regime of the PRI and finally the transition to democracy with the decline of the PRI and the crises in Mexican society in the late 20th century. A focus on the use of cultural history to understand Mexican politics will engage the analytical categories of class, gender, ethnicity, and hegemony. We will pay particular attention to the process by which the state and grassroots society in Mexico have developed a relation that shaped the course of the nation and its popular culture.