Booknotes: Torn Asunder

New Arrival:

• Torn Asunder: Republican Crises and Civil Wars in the United States and Mexico, 1848–1867 by Erika Pani (UNC Press, 2025).

From the description: "In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War and dramatically reshaped North American geopolitics by ceding half of Mexico’s territory to the United States. In the following decades, as conflicts over slavery in the United States and over the nature of nation, state, and religion in Mexico overwhelmed politics, both republics collapsed into civil war."

The politics, societies, and historical tracks of both nations are so different that identifying and exploring a series of unifying elements, even for a very specific period of history, seems like a tall task, but that is just what Erika Pani undertakes in her study Torn Asunder: Republican Crises and Civil Wars in the United States and Mexico, 1848–1867.

More from the description: Pani’s narrative "weaves these two tales of crisis, war, and political experimentation into a single story. Pani argues that by consecrating these episodes as epic and exceptionalist chapters in both nations' histories, scholars have overlooked the coincidences and connections between the United States and Mexico. She chronicles the ways in which, between 1848 and 1867, politicians from the two nations tested different formulas, reacted to virulent opposition, sedition, and war, and ultimately attempted to unite deeply divided countries."

In the end, Torn Asunder "highlights the fragile, contentious, and unpredictable nature of politics in the Americas, rooted in the inherent instability of popular sovereignty."