Routes of Compromise

Building Roads and Shaping the Nation in Mexico, 1917-1952

Michael K. Bess

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780803299344
• eBook ISBN: 9781496204011
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Mexican History
• Index: History

In Routes of Compromise Michael K. Bess studies the social, economic, and political implications of road building and state formation in Mexico through a comparative analysis of Nuevo León and Veracruz from the 1920s to the 1950s. He examines how both foreign and domestic actors, working at local, national, and transnational levels, helped determine how Mexico would build and finance its roadways. While Veracruz offered a radical model for regional construction that empowered agrarian communities, national consensus would solidify around policies championed by Nuevo León's political and commercial elites. Bess shows that no single political figure or central agency dominated the process of determining Mexico's road-building policies. Instead, provincial road-building efforts highlight the contingent nature of power and state formation in midcentury Mexico.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction: Revolutionary Roads
• 1: “A Good Road . . . Brings Life to All of the Towns It Passes”
• 2: “Everyone Was Ready to Do Their Part”
• 3: “So That These Problems May Be Placed in the Hand of the President”
• 4: “We March with Mexico for Liberty!”
• 5: “Those Who Do Not Look Forward Are Left Behind”
• 6: Charting the Contours
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Appendix C
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About Michael K. Bess
• Series List
• Figures