Winner of the Bolton-Johnson Prize Winner of the Utley Prize Winner of the Distinguished Book Award, Society for Military History “The Dead March incorporates the work of Mexican historians...in a story that involves far more than military strategy, diplomatic maneuvering, and American political intrigue...Studded with arresting insights and convincing observations.” —James Oakes, New York Review of Books “Superb...A remarkable achievement, by far the best general account of the war now available. It is critical, insightful, and rooted in a wealth of archival sources; it brings far more of the Mexican experience than any other work...and it clearly demonstrates the social and cultural dynamics that shaped Mexican and American politics and military force.” —Journal of American History It has long been held that the United States emerged victorious from the Mexican–American War because its democratic system was more stable and its citizens more loyal. But this award-winning history shows that Americans dramatically underestimated the strength of Mexican patriotism and failed to see how bitterly Mexicans resented their claims to national and racial superiority. Their fierce resistance surprised US leaders, who had expected a quick victory with few casualties. By focusing on how ordinary soldiers and civilians in both countries understood and experienced the conflict, The Dead March offers a clearer picture of the brief, bloody war that redrew the map of North America.

By the early and mid-nineteenth century, many US citizens were moving westward. Some of them settled in the territories of Texas and California, which belonged to Mexico at that time. In 1835 the tension between the two countries turned violent; US settlers started fighting for independence in the Texas Revolution. That conflict went on to ignite the Mexican-American War in 1846. The war lasted close to two years and claimed thousands of lives. In the end, Mexico lost a huge amount of land to its northern neighbor in exchange for money. The war left bitter resentments between the two governments, which now had to manage a shared border, unrest among their citizens, and their own civil wars. See how land conflicts erupted into violence between these two neighboring countries. Track the events and turning points that led to the Mexican-American War, and learn how the aftermath shaped the western expansion of the United States.

A discussion of the events from both sides of the conflict, with eyewitness accounts, documents, photographs, illustrations, and notes that augment the material, covering soldier's stories and political and military strategies.

"History of the Mexican-American War " in 2 volumes is one of the best-known works by an American historian Justin Harvey Smith. The Mexican-American War was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico still considered Mexican territory since the government did not recognize the treaty signed by Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna when he was a prisoner of the Texian Army during the 1836 Texas Revolution. For Mexico, this was a provocation: Mexican forces attacked U.S. forces, and the United States Congress declared war. Volume 1: Mexico and the Mexicans The Political Education of Mexico The Relations between the United States and Mexico, 1825–1843 The Relations between the United States and Mexico, 1843–1846 The Mexican Attitude on the Eve of War The American Attitude on the Eve of War The Preliminaries of the Conflict Palo Alto and Resaca de Guerrero The United States Meets the Crisis The Chosen Leaders Advance Taylor Sets out for Saltillo Monterey Saltillo, Parras, and Tampico Santa Fe Chihuahua The California Question The Conquest of California The Genesis of Two Campaigns Santa Anna Prepares to Strike Buena Vista Volume 2: Behind the Scenes at Mexico Vera Cruz Cerro Gordo Puebla On to the Capital Contreras and Churubusco Negotiations Molino del Rey, Chapultepec and Mexico Final Military Operations The Naval Operations The Americans as Conquerors Peace The Finances of the War The War in American Politics The Foreign Relations of the War

Winner of the Fr. Paul J. Foik Award from the Texas Catholic Historical Society The term "Manifest Destiny" has traditionally been linked to U.S. westward expansion in the nineteenth century, the desire to spread republican government, and racialist theories like Anglo-Saxonism. Yet few people realize the degree to which Manifest Destiny and American republicanism relied on a deeply anti-Catholic civil-religious discourse. John C. Pinheiro traces the rise to prominence of this discourse, beginning in the 1820s and culminating in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. Pinheiro begins with social reformer and Protestant evangelist Lyman Beecher, who was largely responsible for synthesizing seemingly unrelated strands of religious, patriotic, expansionist, and political sentiment into one universally understood argument about the future of the United States. When the overwhelmingly Protestant United States went to war with Catholic Mexico, this "Beecherite Synthesis" provided Americans with the most important means of defining their own identity, understanding Mexicans, and interpreting the larger meaning of the war. Anti-Catholic rhetoric constituted an integral piece of nearly every major argument for or against the war and was so universally accepted that recruiters, politicians, diplomats, journalists, soldiers, evangelical activists, abolitionists, and pacifists used it. It was also, Pinheiro shows, the primary tool used by American soldiers to interpret Mexico's culture. All this activity in turn reshaped the anti-Catholic movement. Preachers could now use caricatures of Mexicans to illustrate Roman Catholic depravity and nativists could point to Mexico as a warning about what America would be like if dominated by Catholics. Missionaries of Republicanism provides a critical new perspective on Manifest Destiny, American republicanism, anti-Catholicism, and Mexican-American relations in the nineteenth century.

The definitive history of the often forgotten U.S.-Mexican War paints an intimate portrait of the major players and their world—from Indian fights and Manifest Destiny, to secret military maneuvers, gunshot wounds, and political spin. “If one can read only a single book about the Mexican-American War, this is the one to read.” —The New York Review of Books Often overlooked, the U.S.-Mexican War featured false starts, atrocities, and daring back-channel negotiations as it divided the nation, paved the way for the Civil War a generation later, and launched the career of Abraham Lincoln. Amy S. Greenberg’s skilled storytelling and rigorous scholarship bring this American war for empire to life with memorable characters, plotlines, and legacies. Along the way it captures a young Lincoln mismatching his clothes, the lasting influence of the Founding Fathers, the birth of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and America’s first national antiwar movement. A key chapter in the creation of the United States, it is the story of a burgeoning nation and an unforgettable conflict that has shaped American history.