A Critical Review of _Dueling Eagles_, Francaviglia et al.
In a reading of sources regarding the U.S.-Mexican War, the reader is struck by certain portrayals of the U.S. and Mexico, the former as a powerful nation and the latter as underdeveloped, weak, and disorganized. These portrayals are apparent in both secondary and primary sources dealing with the war, for varying reasons in each case. In the primary sources, most of which are American (at least those used by researchers from the U.S.), the presentations of American greatness and Mexican weakness are closely tied with American chauvinism of the time period, which pervaded most writing and documentation. The secondary literature seems to have fallen victim to this pervasive chauvinism, echoing the idea that the U.S. was not plagued by the same kinds of problems as Mexico: political disorganization, spatial disparity, and varied (even dissenting) mindsets. The notion that Mexico lost the war to the U.S. because of political infighting is simplistic at best. Likewise, the assumption of U.S. unity and hegemony (or hegemonic interests/goals) may reflect a taking at face value of primary source material and also
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Some common words found in the essay are:
US-Mexican War, Alta California, Douglas Richmond, Illinois Despite, Washington Mexico, Mexico City, Nevermind Mexico-US, us-mexican war, , Dueling Eagles, northern frontier, distant northern, war book, primary sources, mexico city, distant northern frontier,
Approximate Word count = 753
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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