Revolution! Mexico 1910-20

By Ronald Atkin

Ronald Atkin’s masterly, insistently readable account gives a panoramic yet detailed picture of the first and in many ways most savage large-scale revolution of a violent century.

The two key names in this turbulent moment of modern Mexico’s history are Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. Villa began his revolutionary career at the age of sixteen by killing a man who had raped his sister. He then fled to the sierra. Zapata’s career began on his discharge from the army, when he found that his village’s common land had been enclosed by the local landowner. Zapata immediately went guerrilla.

Many will recognise the names of Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, but how many of us have any real grasp or coherent picture of the Mexican Revolution — of its causes, blood-drenched power struggles, personalities and battles? 

Revolution! Mexico 1910–20 is a tautly-written account of a revolution too often forgotten.