Insurgency, Counter-insurgency and Policing in Centre-West Mexico, 1926-1929: Fighting Cristeros

Waged between 1926 and 1929, The Cristero War (also known as The Cristero Rebellion or La Cristiada) resulted from a religious insurrectionary movement, which formed in protest of the Mexican Revolution's anticlerical constitution of 1917. It was arguably the most violent and divisive episode in Mexican history between the 1910 Revolution itself and the ongoing 'Narco Wars'. Filling in major gaps in our understanding of the conflict, Mark Lawrence explores both combatant and civilian experiences in the centre-west Mexican state of Zacatecas and its borderlands. Lawrence shows that, despite the centrality of this key region, it has received little scholarly attention compared with other states, such as Jalisco or Michoacán, which saw similar levels of conflict. In providing a greater understanding of Zacatecas during The Cristero War, Lawrence not only works to even out a major historiographical bias, but he also sheds greater light on the contours of religious conflict and political dissent in early 20th-century Mexican history. In particular, he illustrates how the dynamics of local politics had fundamentally affected the way that a broader movement was embraced (and rejected) at a sub-national level. As such, he offers all historians, irrespective of geographic or temporal specialization, a reminder not to make sweeping assumptions about the everyday nature of compliance and resistance at the local level.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations 1. Origins, Context, Historiography 2. Cristero Battle Fronts 3. Cristero Home Fronts 4. Government Battle Fronts 5. Government Home Fronts 6. Legacy, Memory and Conclusion Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Mark Lawrence is Lecturer in History at the University of Kent, UK. He is the author of Spain's First Carlist War, 1833-40 (2014), which was named a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title in 2018.

Review :
This is the first book to take a New Military History approach to Mexico's cristero rebellion and to use concepts such as asymmetrical warfare and Kalyvas's “logic of violence” to theorize events on the ground. The book also traces life on the “home front” in unusual depth, showing how people on both the near and far edges of battle in Zacatecas (the book's regional focus) were affected by it. The result is an integral, powerfully experiential history of what it meant to live through the rebellion. Mark Lawrence reminds us, above all, that the Cristiada was a war, one that exacted a terrible cost in blood and treasure from the society in which it took place. Mark Lawrence reminds us of the persistence of local memory in Zacatecasv ... His much needed military analysis of the Cristero War will engage and instruct scholars of west-central Mexico as well as military historians trying to understand why a seemingly minor religious war still resonates to this day. This book assembles a very useful selection of introductions to counterinsurgency relocation, including some (notably such those in Cuba, South Africa, and Vietnam) which are excellent stand-alone summaries.