Judas at the Jockey Club and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico (Second Edition) »

William H. Beezley is the Neville G. Penrose Professor of Latin American Studies at Texas Christian University.

During the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, from 1876 to 1911, Mexico underwent modernization, producing a fierce struggle between the traditional and the new and exacerbating class antagonisms. William H. Beezley's absorbing social history of the Porfirian era, Judas at the Jockey Club, examines a broad range of topics from sports to technology as well as the traditional Easter-time Judas burnings that became a primary focus of the strife during these years.

Library Journal

Just beneath the surface of this seemingly lighthearted little book is a very thick foundation of solid scholarship. The author succeeds admirably in opening a window to the minds of turn-of-the-century Mexicans pursuing the elusive idea of progress. Beezley looks at bicycle riding, cockfighting, sports, and Judas burning, as activities that illustrate the psychological pushes and pulls that characterized this important period of Mexican history. He has provided undergraduates and graduate students with a delightfully written, unique example of what social history is about. Nicholas P. Cushner, History Department, Empire State College, State University of New York at Buffalo