Mexican Revolution book

[manchesterreg]

Has anyone read this series...Maneuver and Battle in the Mexican Revolution: Rise of the Praetorians: Volume 1. Thinking of getting all 3 Volumes but bit pricey

[Leigh Metford]

It depends on how seriously you're interested in the Mex Rev. If you just want to 'Hollywood' it you don't need these books. If you want a thoroughly comprehensive military history with lashings of insightful analysis thrown in then buy them; there's nothing else even remotely comparable in the English language.

There are in fact five volumes. Volumes Four and Five cover the period after the defeat of Huerta's armies when the revolutionary forces fought amongst themselves and battles expanded to corps level.   

[manchesterreg]

Thanks, Its more for History than gaming. A period i have not read anything on. Thank you

[Leigh Metford]

You're welcome.

If you're entirely new to the subject I'd recommend starting with one of the numerous general histories in print to give you a solid understanding of the chaotic, labyrinthine political background to the military dimension of the revolution, manchesterreg. Some of these should be available through your public library system.

[sjwalker51]

There’s also the single volume “strategy and tactics of the Mexican Revolution” by the same author if you want a cheaper introduction

[Leigh Metford]

The five-volume series grew out of the author's doctoral dissertation. Each volume is a greatly expanded version of a chapter in that work. I believe the book Simon refers to reverses the process, and might even be closely based on the dissertation. It's certainly a good option for the purely military dimension of the revolution if your level of interest in the subject, prospective time commitment to it, and gaming intentions for it, fall somewhere between passing/occasional/Hollywood and intense/major/thoroughly historically accurate.     

[manchesterreg]

The five-volume series grew out of the author's doctoral dissertation. Each volume is a greatly expanded version of a chapter in that work. I believe the book Simon refers to reverses the process, and might even be closely based on the dissertation. It's certainly a good option for the purely military dimension of the revolution if your level of interest in the subject, prospective time commitment to it, and gaming intentions for it, fall somewhere between passing/occasional/Hollywood and intense/major/thoroughly historically accurate.   

I have got Volume One and have not been able to put it down, i can see already that this book and no doubt the others, are probably unbeatable, whilst my knowledge of the Mexican Revolution stems more from the few Hollywood films i have seen. I have found the book easy to read and follow, the fact even in a skirmish he can say who was killed means his research is in depth. My only caveat is the names i was at first finding hard to follow, but it becomes clearer as the Revolutions start. Thank you for recommending this

[Leigh Metford]

Comprehensive as the Janssens books are for the northern campaigns in the 1910 - 1915 window, they have less to say about the Zapatistas and minor factions and don't cover the post-1915 years of the conflict. Books in English focusing on the military side of these aspects of the revolution are still to be written.

On the Mexican Revolution Researchers IO (formerly Yahoo) Group there was for a long time an 'On This Day 100 years Ago' thread under which John 'Smokey' Koelsch often posted detailed battle reports, many of which concerned actions involving the Zapatistas. Perhaps if you join this group you'll have access to an archive of these posts.