About the Book
In the city of Puebla there lived an American who made himself into the richest man in Mexico. Driven by a steely desire to prove himself-first to his wife's family, then to Mexican elites-William O. Jenkins rose from humble origins in Tennessee to build a business empire in a country energized by industrialization and revolutionary change. In Jenkins of Mexico, Andrew Paxman presents the first biography of this larger-than-life
personality.When the decade-long Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, Jenkins preyed on patrician property owners and bought up substantial real estate. He suffered a scare with a firing squad and then a kidnapping
by rebels, an episode that almost triggered a US invasion. After the war he owned textile mills, developed Mexico's most productive sugar plantation, and helped finance the rise of a major political family, the Ávila Camachos. During the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s-50s, he lorded over the film industry with his movie theater monopoly and key role in production. By means of Mexico's first major hostile takeover, he bought the country's second-largest bank. Reputed as an
exploiter of workers, a puppet-master of politicians, and Mexico's wealthiest industrialist, Jenkins was the gringo that Mexicans loved to loathe. After his wife's death, he embraced philanthropy and willed his
entire fortune to a foundation named for her, which co-founded two prestigious universities and funded projects to improve the lives of the poor in his adopted country.Using interviews with Jenkins' descendants, family papers, and archives in Puebla, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Washington, Jenkins of Mexico tells a contradictory tale of entrepreneurship and monopoly, fearless individualism and cozy deals with power-brokers, embrace of US-style capitalism and
political anti-Americanism, and Mexico's transformation from semi-feudal society to emerging economic power.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Black Legend of William O. Jenkins
Chapter 1: Coming of Age in Tennessee
Chapter 2: Fortune-Seeking in Mexico
Chapter 3: How to Get Rich in a Revolution
Chapter 4: Kidnapped, Jailed, Vilified
Chapter 5: Empire at Atencingo
Chapter 6: Resistance at Atencingo
Chapter 7: With Maximino
Chapter 8: Mining the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema
Chapter 9: Enterprise, Profiteering, and the Death of the Golden Age
Chapter 10: The Jenkins Foundation and the Battle for the Soul of the PRI
Chapter 11: Jenkins' Earthly Afterlife
Epilogue: The Mixed Legacy of William O. Jenkins
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Andrew Paxman teaches history and journalism at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City and Aguascalientes. He is the co-author of El Tigre, a biography of the Mexican media mogul Emilio Azcárraga Milmo.
Review :
"Deeply researched and vividly written....Paxman has produced a novel and often brilliant analysis of business and politics in modern Mexico....Paxman's interpretation of multiple industries--textiles, film, sugar, banking, philanthropy--is deft, and his research is extraordinarily deep and broad....Paxman has produced a complex, significant biography that provides an essential interpretation of Mexico's modern economic, political, and social
institutions."--Susan Gauss, Business History Review
"Jenkins of Mexico is a well-researched, interesting, engaging biography of an enigmatic, conflicted, complex man, who some argue became one of the richest men in Mexico....The author masterfully describes how Jenkins created businesses partnerships in Mexico by striking deals with the Mexican and political elite, simultaneously safeguarding his wealth and avoiding paying taxes in the US. His ventures into Mexican capitalism included sugar plantations
and movie theaters. Throughout the text, the author describes how Jenkins's politicking evolved and eventually affected national politics through a loan he made to then future President Manuel Ávila Camacho.
This book, rich in details, is highly recommended for serious students of Mexican history and politics. Highly recommended."--CHOICE
"Historian Paxman's exhaustive biography of the enigmatic William O. Jenkins reveals that his life had romance, high adventure, mystery, and (movie) magic...[Jenkins of Mexico] is an impressive accomplishment, and readers interested in the evolution of the modern Mexican state will find a fascinating treasure trove here."--Booklist
"Researched with care and written with verve, Andrew Paxman's highly original study of the long and convoluted life of William Jenkins-entrepreneur, patriarch, philanthropist, and political fixer--is a fascinating read; it also sheds ample light on business and political (mal)practices during the Mexican Revolution and subsequent decades of state-formation and economic growth. For once, a book that manages to combine cogent scholarly research and stylistic
flair."--Alan Knight, author of The Mexican Revolution
"No one has shown the life of any other US businessman in such engaging detail during these decades. Through Jenkins's life Andrew Paxman has been able to show very clearly Mexican political and economic development outside of but impinging on Mexico City."--Linda B. Hall, University of New Mexico
"Paxman's masterful biography is the story of an enigmatic American in Mexico. Above all, Jenkins of Mexico demonstrates the chameleon-like character of capital's--and the capitalist's--pursuit of financial and personal rewards wherever they could be found, on farms, in cinema, and in charitable foundations. Given the staggering inequalities of our own times, it's a lesson as valuable today as it was during the days of Jenkins."--Geraldo L. Cadava, author of
Standing on Common Ground: The Making of a Sunbelt Borderland
"A wonderful achievement and a path-breaking example of what good biography can achieve. Andrew Paxman's impressively researched study of a hugely influential US businessman is also a rich political and economic history of twentieth-century Mexico. William Jenkins, traditionally caricatured as benevolent hero or imperialist meddler, emerges as a complex and contradictory figure."--Barry Carr, La Trobe University
"Jenkins of Mexico is a well-researched, interesting, engaging biography of an enigmatic, conflicted, complex man, who some argue became one of the richest men in Mexico....This book, rich in details, is highly recommended."--CHOICE
"Magnificent...Paxman has written a work that interweaves the personal and family take of Jenkins with a broad examination of Mexican history from the early 20th century until the 1960s-a remarkable achievement...The book is held together by its systematic analysis of the shifting relationships between government and business, and between political power and capital in the context of the Mexican revolution and the changes it produced in subsequent
decades...Thoroughly researched, this book is written with outstanding elegance, skill, and persuasion. Jenkins of Mexico is both a major history of state-business relations during the first half of the 20th
century and a superb biography."--Wil G. Pansters, European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
"Andrew Paxman has written the definitive account of William Jenkins-often considered the richest man in mid-twentieth century Mexico. Paxman's lengthy biography is extensively investigated and...this, combined with Paxman's spirited writing style, makes for a compelling read that will engage scholars interested in modern Mexico, bilateral relations, and the evolution of capitalism in the developing world...The interdependent relationship between big business
and the Mexican government enabled both sides to get what they wanted, often at the expense of Mexico's working poor despite revolutionary rhetoric to the contrary...In recent years, as Mexico
democratized, and the shortcomings of the Revolution are more readily admitted, critical views of Jenkins have softened and a more balanced portrayal of this complex figure has emerged. Paxman's excellent biography of Jenkins is at the forefront of this important historical revision."--John J. Dwyer, Diplomatic History
