Paulo Drinot (ed.), La Patria Nueva: Economía, sociedad y cultura en el Perú, 1919–1930 (Raleigh, NC: Editorial A Contracorriente, Serie Historia y Ciencias Sociales, 2018), pp. 277, pb.

Abstract

(probably anachronistic) projections of political ideology onto movements whose core values remained often vague and usually rather flexible. As a historian of the Mexican Left, it has pushed me to think much more deeply about what 'the Left' or 'Lefts' might constitute in such circumstances: ideologically-heterodox coalitions were (re)forming around specific issues or eventscentre-periphery relations, succession mechanisms, re-election, trade with the United Stateswhich are not, prima facie, mapped easily onto a Left-Right spectrum. This is a clear, cogent and innovative contribution to the history of postrevolutionary Mexico, offering a plausible, well-evidenced account of how the ruling party eventually came into being, but also reminding us of the many paths not taken in that crucial period of state formation. It is a compelling read with important, frustrating andin many casestragic sub-narratives; highly recommended.