A Glorious Defeat

For the Glory of Mexico In this book, Timothy J. Henderson examines the origins, outcomes, and modern-day consequences of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). A Glorious Defeat is organized around two central questions: why did Mexico go to war with the United States in 1846 and why did the war go so badly for Mexico? Henderson does provide the answers to these questions, based on the reader having some knowledge of the expansionist history that the US partook in with its southern neighbors, but who are “far less certain why Mexico went to war with the United States” (xviii). Henderson provides this book to as a means to correct the current Anglo-centric literature that circulates America, in which blames Mexico for its own losses “because they were proud to the point of delusion, arrogantly overestimating their own strength” (xviii). He states that it is fair and adequate to state that neither side of the battle is to blame, when in fact stemmed from the weakness of the Mexican nation, not by the aggressive nature of the US. The fact is Mexico was not the thriving and well established US; it was a meek and frail nation. The US, after the annexation of Texas, saw Mexico with the government’s bonds to the northern states and own political standings, as a challenge that can be devoured by the victorious nation. There was also Mexico’s own acknowledgement of its nations weakness that drove the political leaders to engage in a war with an obvious superior nation, in attempts to gain power and defend its honor. War with the United States gave Mexican leaders the opportunity to “indulge in the illusion” that the nation was not rent by economic, ethnic, and geographic divisions, but was instead“ resolute and united against a foreign foe” (191). Henderson attempts to “understand Mexico’s weakness and how that weakness helped land it in a war with the United States,” relying heavily on evidence of Mexico’s disadvantages in comparison to the vitality and abundance

Cited: Henderson, Timothy J. A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007. Print.