This is a highly readable, very short overview of Mexican history from the time of the Spanish Conquest to the election of the first non-PRI president, Vicente Fox, and the disputed election of his successor, Jose Calderon, in 2006. The author, a German-Mexican, does his best to find bright spots in the incredibly violent mess that has constituted Mexican history since independence from Spain, but it is pretty hard to do so. It is very interesting, to say the least, what with the wars with America and loss of a huge part of Mexico's territory, the imposition of an emperor (Maximilian) from Austria, Pancho Villa, Zapata, dictatorships, and an incredible number of assassinations, but it is hard to draw a lot of hope from it. Today's Mexico may boast a few of the world's richest people, but the divide between rich and poor seems as great as ever--both economically and in their vision of how the country should be run. And the government still seems powerless to really bring law and order everywhere, but the violent private armies of the regional powers of the past have now been replaced by even more powerful armies of drug gangs. Some may find a bit of a leftish slant to the author's take on Mexican history, but the only conclusion I can draw is that for the most part nothing--left or right--has ever worked. It's a sad tale, but I highly recommend reading it to get a better understanding of modern Mexico's challenges and its worldview(s). ( )