History of the War Between Mexico and the United States, with a Preliminary View

Brantz MayerProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2

Word count: 348K words
Chapters: 35

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.History of the War Between Mexico and the United States, with a Preliminary ViewAuthor: Mayer, Brantz, 1809-1879,Language: English, Class: E300: History: America: Revolution to the Civil War (1783-1861), Release Date: Aug 29, 2010

Editor's review

This book is a chronicle-style account of the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848 by the nineteenth-century American historical writer Brantz Mayer, with a preliminary survey of the conflict's background. As a free Project Gutenberg e-book, its value lies first in the presentation of historical sources: the author lived not long after the war, and his writing carries the perspective and limitations of nineteenth-century American historiography, allowing readers to observe how people of the time understood the war, organized their narrative, and judged right and wrong. The book traces the course of the fighting in chronological order and serves as supplementary material for studying American history, military history, and the history of Mexican-American relations, as well as for readers interested in the style of nineteenth-century English historical writing. A caveat: the book's stance bears clear marks of its era and should not be taken as a neutral verdict; read it alongside modern scholarship. The e-book is easy to search and excerpt, making it suited to research reading rather than casual cover-to-cover reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of American or military history needing primary narrative material to supplement coursework
Readers studying Mexican-American relations and nineteenth-century American expansion, for comparison with modern historiography
Readers interested in the style and narrative methods of nineteenth-century English historical writing
University teachers and students needing free public-domain sources for textual analysis or translation practice

Not a good fit for

Beginners seeking contemporary neutral historiography and critical analysis
Casual readers who prefer easy stories or fast-paced narrative
Readers with limited English who are unused to nineteenth-century style and long sentences

Reading tips

Read the introductory chapters first to grasp the author's stance, then move into the chronological account, avoiding being led by a single thread.
Prepare a timeline of the Mexican-American War and mark dates and places as you read to reduce the disorientation of long passages.
After each stage, find a modern scholar's overview to compare, noting the author's selective narration and bias.
For the English original, read with a dictionary and excerpt notes, annotating key sentences for later citation.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is the book's narrative stance neutral?

Not in the modern sense. The author is a nineteenth-century American, and his writing carries the national perspective and prejudices of the time, with his own judgments on the war's causes and justice. It is better used as a sample of American public opinion and historiography of the period than as a verdict; read it alongside modern scholarship, noting what the author omits and emphasizes.

Can I read it without background on the Mexican-American War?

You can, but it will be fairly hard going. The book assumes some knowledge of nineteenth-century American politics and military background, and names, places, and unit designations are dense. Spend half an hour on a concise overview and map of the war to establish a timeline before starting the text, and comprehension will be much smoother.

What kind of reading suits the e-book?

It suits research reading better than cover-to-cover reading. Use the search function to jump by battle, person, or place, and organize by theme with excerpts and annotations; for translation or stylistic analysis, read closely chapter by chapter and record typical sentence patterns and vocabulary—more rewarding than a single straight read.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Brantz Mayer Author · American · 1809–1879

Brantz Mayer (1809–1879) was an American lawyer, historian, and writer born in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1844 he helped found the Maryland Historical Society and served as its president. He was secretary of the United States legation in Mexico and later served as an army paymaster with the rank of colonel. His writings focus largely on Mexican history and U.S.–Mexico relations; his major works include Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, History of the War Between Mexico and the United States, Calvert and Penn, and a memoir of Jared Sparks, and he edited Captain Canot. His work is noted for careful use of historical sources and for its attention to the social and political context of the colonial and wartime periods.