Book Review

The field of Chicano history has grown and matured rapidly over the last thirty years. One recent sign of this phenomenon is the publication of new books revisiting topics previously covered during that period. Manuel G. Gonzales's Mexicanos and Douglas Monroy's Rebirth exemplify this trend. Gonzales's work once again surveys the history of Mexican Americans from earliest times to the present; Monroy's reconsiders the early-twentieth-century history of the Mexican residents of the Los Angeles area broadly defined. While both authors offer new information and refreshing insights, Gonzales reasserts some regressive interpretations, a mistake that Monroy fortunately avoids.

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In Mexicanos Gonzales reacts against what he considers an activist bias in Chicano historiography. He argues that Mexican American historians have too often produced studies that lacked "objectivity" because of political leanings in favor of their own ethnic group. While he recognizes some diversity of opinion, he believes that the field remains overly influenced by radical work, specifically Rodolfo Acuña's Occupied America (1972). Gonzales advances his own survey as a more "balanced" account. Though acknowledging "the impossibility of writing a value-free study," he nevertheless tries to "maintain objectivity." Without getting into the complex epistemology behind this argument, one can only wonder about Gonzales's chances for success.

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