A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and its war with the United States

A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and its war with the United States by Timothy J. Henderson

This is one of those books that I ordered online thinking it was something entirely different then what it turned out to be.  I was wanting a book about the U.S. – Mexico War that took place in the latter half of the 1840s. I was wanting a blow by blow account of the battles, the key figures, the politics, and the overall sentiments from both sides of the conflict.  What this book actually is, however, is more of a detailed account of WHY the particular war ever took place.  So we read a lot about the reasons why the two nations went to war, but very little about the war itself.  Fortunately, since my knowledge of “why” the conflict happened was very sparse, I was perfectly happy with this book and would still highly recommend it.

An interesting observation: The subtitle of this book is “Mexico and its war with the United States” NOT “The United States and its war with Mexico”.  The word “Mexico” is also featured in big bold letters within the title on the actual book.  To me, this is an observation that this book is more about Mexico during the time leading up to the conflict than it is the United States.  Again, this was welcome to me as I know a lot of history of the United States during this time, yet very little of Mexico’s history.   You could argue that this book could also serve as sort of a primer for the first fifty years of Mexico’s existence as an independent nation.

Sadly, this is not a very glorious nor productive time for the young country of Mexico.  Unlike the United States, Mexico doesn’t have much to be proud of, and the author paints a very grim picture of the nation.  The class division is far too wide a chasm, the infrastructure is faulty, the leadership corrupt, and the state ruled Catholic Church seems to do more harm than good.

When a basically ignored northern province known as Texas begins to be inhibited by people from the United States, they seem to function much better than their inhabited country.  The proud Texans set up a system that works quite well, and we soon see the stranglehold of their (jealous?) parent nation of Mexico.  Soon, the United States wants Texas.  This book, however, is not a strict execration of the nation of Mexico, nor does it serve as an apologist defense for the United States.  The author makes it very clear that the motives of the United States are far from altruistic, and one of the overall sentiments displayed by many is that the main reason the U.S. wants Texas is to balance the “slavery” issue; one more state added to the union where slavery exists can tilt the balance in the South’s favor. 

Again, though, there’s not much within these pages about the War of Texas Independence.  The famous story of The Alamo, for example, is briefly mentioned on one, maybe two pages.  This is definitely more of a “behind the scenes” book rather than focusing on the actual events of the various conflicts.

We read an awful lot about Santa Ana.  The man seems to be a cruel joke on humanity, yet he somehow manages to get elected to the presidency of the nation of Mexico no fewer than ten times.  When someone who does such a poor job leading and yet manages to finagle his way into the prime role of  leadership time after time, you can help but shake your head in disgust that a nation can really be that backwards.

This book is just short of 200 pages, and is ‘smaller’ than most hardbacks.  This makes it rather a brief read, yet it really is packed with solid, noteworthy information.  As I mentioned earlier, the actual “War with Mexico” doesn’t happen until late in this volume, and the details are only briefly described.  So if you’re looking for a detailed account, I would suggest you look elsewhere, but this book does provide a very thorough understanding of the temperature of the two nations leading up to the conflict; with many of the repercussions – physical and emotional – still prevalent today.