John Tutino’s recently published, massive and detailed history of an understudied aspect of the Mexican Revolution, The Bajío Revolution: Remaking Capitalism, Community, and Patriarchy in Mexico, North America, and the World (Duke University Press, 2025), is one of more than a dozen Duke University Press titles that have been indexed recently by Southwest Humanities. In this exhaustive study, Tutino reveals how the insurgent movements in Mexico’s Bajío region from 1810 to 1820 fundamentally altered the trajectory of global capitalism. As the silver-based economy of New Spain collapsed under revolutionary pressure, rural insurgents disrupted lucrative trade routes, breaking the flow of silver and Asian markets. This rupture opened a space for industrial imports from England crafted from enslaved U.S. cotton and simultaneously empowered local Bajío women, who turned to maize cultivation to support families and guerrilla efforts. In the decades following independence, a novel form of silver-industrial capitalism arose, rooted in small-scale, family-led agriculture and bolstered by the efforts of women laborers, one of whom became a pioneering silver capitalist. Tutino positions the U.S. invasion and its global alignment via the gold standard in the 1870s as forces that ultimately thwarted Mexico’s independent capitalist pathway. The Bajío Revolution uncovers a powerful counter-narrative: instead of marginal upheaval, the insurgencies restructured local economies, empowered women, and challenged the foundations of global capital. It is essential reading for those investigating revolutionary transformations, gendered labor, and the intertwined histories of Mexico, the U.S., and the global economy. For more information on this important new book, please see the publisher’s website here.
SOUTHWEST HUMANITIES 