Ron Chernow’s deliciously thorough biography of Ulysses S. Grant discussed his service in the Mexican-American War as experienced by an American officer. This year, I wanted a discussion of that war that would tell me more than what a West Point graduate would have experienced. I found Peter Guardino’s The Dead March a complete view of the war, from American General Winfield Scott to the anonymous Mexican woman who followed the U.S. army out of desperation. Guardino’s well-researched social history of the war differed so much from other military histories that I have come across. He does not mince words when it comes to the American volunteers’ brutality towards Mexican civilians (flogging, rape, desecration of churches, the list goes on) and questions every narrative we encounter as Americans about the intent of that war and why the U.S. won it.
When I was growing up, I learned that “revisionist” history meant that “real” history was being erased or manipulated to serve political correctness. It look a lot of unpacking for. me to understand what so-called revisionism actually means: viewing history through the experiences of those who lived it. Histories like Guardino’s are difficult to write, given how women and people of color’s voices have been silenced, and much more ambiguous in their conclusions. I appreciate Guardino’s efforts to tell the whole truth, even when the result is messier than the patriarchal narrative that is often included in a child’s history book.
Published by Harvard University Press (2017)