Sunday Morning Book Thread 06-17-2012: South of the Border Edition[OregonMuse]

Good morning to all and happy Fathers' Day to the dads. I don't have much this morning, so I'll have to start with a movie and use that to launch into books. On Thurs. night, I took Mrs. Muse to the movies. We saw For Greater Glory which is about the uprising in Mexico that occured during the 1920s known as the Cristiada uprising or or the Cristero War which came about when the Mexican government enacted and enforced a series of draconian anti-clerical laws that crossed the line of keeping the Roman Catholic Church out of politics to out-and-out persecution. I recommend it for all morons. Not only it is a good movie, but it is the kind of movie that Hollywood needs to be encouraged to make more of. And by that I mean it doesn't thrust some nihilistic/ironic/perverse worldview in your face but on the contrary, that which is good and noble is held to be good and noble rather than turned upside down, laughed at, or ground underfoot.

As I said, it's a good movie, but not a perfect film by any means. Still, it is well worth paying for to see in the theaters. Especially if you're Roman Catholic. If you're Roman Catholic, I think you're going to really like this movie.

So after seeing it, I was spurred to check out some books on Mexican history, about which I know nothing, and do you know what? During the early decades of the 20th century, Mexico was a pretty lively place: wars, revolutions, abrupt changes of government, new constitutions, political leaders ousted and forced into exile, etc. And all with mandatory rampant corruption, of course.

And the Cristero uprising resulted in something like 40,000 refugees, all of whom fled to the U.S, mostly to Southern California.

Perhaps it isn't much different nowadays.

The books on modern Mexican history I found on Amazon were mostly expensive ($30-50) academic editions, suitable for use as college textbooks, not mass market paperbacks. However, I did find a couple of less expensive ones, the companion book to the movie, and this one, which gives a wider perspective on Mexican history 1900-1930, which you can get as a Kindle edition for $7.99. That's a good deal for history buffs.

So that's all I have for this week.

As always, book thread tips may be sent to aoshqbookthread@gmail.com

Hopefully, you all have been reading some good stuff this week.

posted by Open Blogger at 11:02 AM

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