The Mexican War has long been overshadowed in the public imagination by
that most popular of all American wars, the Civil War. And it has been
swept under the carpet of national conscience as, at worst, a calculated
land grab from a neighbor too weak to defend itself.
Otis Singletary's concise, dramatic account of the war that won the
Southwest and California for the United States is designed to evoke in
modern readers a fresh appreciation of one of the most colorful but
neglected episodes in American military affairs--and certainly one of
the most significant. Victory in this military exercise turned our
attention to the Far West, made possible the Gold Rush of '49, and
brought vast new territories and new peoples into the Union--altering
the face of the nation and greatly influencing its future course.
Mr. Singletary treats the military, political, economic, and diplomatic
aspects of the war. He focuses on the ways in which the Mexican War
exemplified the dynamic spirit of Manifest Destiny and was a microcosm
of peculiarly American--and peculiarly democratic--problems of waging
war.
All in all, this is the best short account of the Mexican War yet
written.--T. Harry Williams, The Journal of Modern History