Description
Much has been written about national history and citizenship; Stack concentrates instead on the history and citizenship of towns and cities. His Mexican informants talked (and wrote) not only of Mexican history but of their towns' histories, too. They acted, at the same time, as citizens of their towns as well as of Mexico. Urban history and citizenship are, the book shows, important yet neglected phenomena in Mexico and beyond.
Rather than setting history on a pedestal, Stack treats it as one kind of knowledge among many others, comparing it not just to legend but also to gossip. Instead of focusing on academic historians, he interviewed people from all walks of life-bricklayers, priests, teachers, politicians, peasant farmers, lawyers, laborers, and migrants-and he also draws on a talk about history by the famous Mexican novelist Juan Rulfo.
As an ethnography, Knowing History in Mexico provides a vivid portrait of ethnicity, lands, migration, tourism, education, religion, and government in a dynamic region of west Mexico that straddles the urban and rural, modern and traditional.
About the Author
Trevor Stack is the director of the Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law at the University of Aberdeen, where he also teaches in the Department of Hispanic Studies.
Book Information
ISBN 9780826352538
Author Trevor Stack
Format Paperback
Page Count 184
Imprint University of New Mexico Press
Publisher University of New Mexico Press