| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Culture of Empire: American Writers, Mexico, and Mexican Immigrants, 1880–1930. By Gilbert G. González. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004. x, 245 pp. Cloth, $50.00, ISBN 0-292-70186-1. Paper, $22.95, ISBN 0-292-70207-8.)

The contention of Culture of Empire is that a surplus of capital in the United States led to economic imperialism, which especially affected Mexico. As a direct result of this economic imperialism, a culture of empire started to emerge in the middle of the nineteenth century; a culture that is, Professor Gilbert G. González suggests, a rationalization, justification, and cultural background of U.S. economic imperialism. The book traces the emergence and crystallization of this culture through the examination of about two hundred books on Mexico written by U.S. citizens—travelers, diplomats, scientists, engineers, and propagandists—from 1880 to 1930. In González's view, these writers were the cultural front of economic imperialism, which gradually developed fixed premises still in play today. Mexicans were viewed as lazy, ignorant, and childlike people in need of tutorship, and Mexico was seen as a rich country whose destiny was to be modernized by the intellectual and economic might of the United States. Once this culture of empire was developed, it was distributed and used to explain everything Mexican, including immigration. Thus, in dealing with every aspect of "the Mexican problem," U.S. scholars, officials, and the general public inevitably relied on this culture of empire.

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