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Miniatures Adventure => Interwar => Topic started by: Mike Blake on February 08, 2020, 12:30:36 PM

Title: New Book on Armies of the Mexican Revolution
Post by: Mike Blake on February 08, 2020, 12:30:36 PM
Please forgive the barefaced self-publicity. Out within 3 weeks from Partizan press, available from Caliver Books.

The blurb

The Mexican Revolution – ten years of strife that nearly tore a country apart

The years of fratricidal warfare described as the Mexican Revolution are not very well known outside of Mexico. The conflict deserves to be better known as it can arguably be called one of the first ‘modern wars’; certainly it heralded many of the major changes in warfare in the First World War. 

Generally looked upon as something of a ‘Small War’, comparable to the Colonial Warfare of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, of guerrilla warfare with small bands of Revolutionaries ambushing Federales, refusing to fight ‘face-to-face’ battles and disappearing back into the hills before they can be caught. This was not the case.
Breechloading and repeating weapons predominated, yet cavalry and ‘mounted infantry’ reached higher numbers than the foot soldiers in some of the armies and battles. But the horseman’s day was over. Here the cavalry of both Mexico and United States made their last grand mounted charges. 

Appearing for the first time were motorcycles, motor trucks, armoured cars and the new ’air power’ all made their first tentative appearances.  The machine gun played a significant role for the first time in non-colonial warfare, heralding how it would come to dominate future battlefields.  Alongside these, wired and wireless communications, barbed wire, searchlights and trenches established their place on the battlefield in the Mexican Revolution.

This book gathers together Information from disparate sources and focuses on the fighting men, and women, what they wore and what they fought with. It describes and illustrates the armed forces, their organization, uniforms, clothing, equipment and weapons to provide a guidebook to historians and wargamers seeking to know more these aspects of the conflict.
The text is supported by full page colour plates by Bruno Mugnai and the author, providing extensive coverage of the appearance of the protagonists and their weapons. Alongside these are photographs from the Elmer Powell Mexican Revolution Collection, DeGolyer Library, SMU, many unique and all published here for the first time.

A guide to wargaming the Mexican Revolution is in preparation as a companion volume to this one.

Title: Re: New Book on Armies of the Mexican Revolution
Post by: carlos marighela on February 08, 2020, 07:56:53 PM
I’m interested. My only questions would be, do the authors read Spanish and have they accessed Mexican archival material or will it be the typical Osprey style melange of second and third hand accounts mixed with gobs of guess work, couched as vaguely as possible?

I spose I’ll have to wait and see.
Title: Re: New Book on Armies of the Mexican Revolution
Post by: Driscoles on February 12, 2020, 09:43:11 AM
Paul Marek, I removed your post. Nobody cares what Carlos is thinking about Osprey.
And Carlos, a fair book review would be better than a wild all around blow against a publishing company.
Thanks guys
Title: Re: New Book on Armies of the Mexican Revolution
Post by: carlos marighela on February 12, 2020, 09:53:01 AM
My post was more in hope than anger. I would be genuinely interested in something well researched and preferably with a proper bibliography. It’s presumably not too much to ask for?
Title: Re: New Book on Armies of the Mexican Revolution
Post by: has.been on February 12, 2020, 10:28:58 AM
I like Osprey books. They encourage me, get me interested & excited
in (yet another) period. THEN I start doing more research, but if I
am not interested in the first place, I walk on by the period.

I am very likely to buy this book, though after I finish at least one or
two of my existing projects. See I am getting smarter as I get older.
Title: Re: New Book on Armies of the Mexican Revolution
Post by: Driscoles on February 12, 2020, 05:48:46 PM
Thanks Carlos. I understood but Paul didnt.
Title: Re: New Book on Armies of the Mexican Revolution
Post by: Mike Blake on February 13, 2020, 01:04:10 PM
FWIW It is an attempt to go deeper than the MAA, but does not cover the socio-political events, nor military strategy and tactics. What it does try to do is give lots of detailed information (some from Spanish language sources but not as much as I would have liked had I been able to access more) about the fighters - organisation, clothing & uniforms, weapons (type, appearance & performance) - lots of facts and figures about the protagonists, not about battles.

It does include an annotated biliography.