Mexican Labor Bibliography:
Suggested readings

Introduction

By Dan La Botz
Visiting Assistant Professor,
History Department
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

[This bibliography is a work in progress.]

Table of Contents:

Introduction
I – Bibliography of Mexican Labor, short entries
II – Bibliography of Mexican Labor, review essays (longer reviews)
III – Bibliography of Mexican Rural Workers and Indigenous People
IV – Bibliography of Mexican Politics
V – Bibliography of Archives and Historiography

Introduction

I originally wrote many of these notes, annotations and reviews for Mexican Labor News and Analysis, an electronic newsletter about Mexican workers and labor unions that I have edited for the last several years. (See MLNA)

Now I have put these notes and reviews together to comprise an annotated bibliography of books in English and Spanish dealing mostly with the modern Mexican labor movement, that is since the mid-nineteenth century. This bibliography includes historical and social science studies of the working class, labor unions, and labor leaders' biographies. There are also related books on social movements and politics. In addition, because the subject matter is often closely related, I have included a number of books dealing with economic history and studies of specific industries.

Because of their importance to the labor movement, this bibliography also includes many books on the history of the Mexican anarchist, socialist, and communist movements, and related biographies. Finally, because of the intertwined history of the Mexican Revolution and Mexican labor organizations, I have also included many of the important books dealing with the Mexican Revolution.

A bibliography such as this is necessary for several reasons. First, Mexican publishing houses are often small and short lived ventures without the resources to advertise their publications internationally. Second, both the small and large Mexican publishing houses often publish small press runs of only 2,000 copies of each book, meaning that many of these books never find their way to U.S. or other foreign libraries. Third, most academic bibliographies, reviews and journals often neglect journalist, popular or labor union books, many of which are included here.

All listings are by the author’s last name (that is by the author's father's name). The citation (author, title, edition, city, publisher, date) is followed by an indication of the books other features (photographs, tables, charts, bibliography, index) and the number of pages. Next comes the book note, beginning where the information was available with a brief description of the author (academic, journalist, union leader, etc.), followed by descriptive comments on the book and perhaps an evaluation.

Note: Some books have a short note in section I and a longer review in section II.