Waking from the Dream

When the postwar boom began to dissipate in the late 1960s, Mexico's middle classes awoke to a new, economically terrifying world. And following massacres of students at peaceful protests in 1968 and 1971, one-party control of Mexican politics dissipated as well. The ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party struggled to recover its legitimacy, but instead saw its support begin to erode. In the following decades, Mexico's middle classes ended up shaping the history of economic and political crisis, facilitating the emergence of neo-liberalism and the transition to democracy.Waking from the Dream tells the story of this profound change from state-led development to neo-liberalism, and from a one-party state to electoral democracy. It describes the fraught history of these tectonic shifts, as politicians and citizens experimented with different strategies to end a series of crises. In the first study to dig deeply into the drama of the middle classes in this period, Walker shows how the most consequential struggles over Mexico's economy and political system occurred between the middle classes and the ruling party.

"This [is a] valuable contribution to ethnographic understanding of middle classes in latter 20th century Mexico . . . Walker argues convincingly that scholarly bias to exclusively study leftist politics creates not only omissions, but distortions. This work offers compelling support for her argument that the Mexican middle classes need to be viewed as heterogeneous, and as full political, economic and social agents who are capable of creating important effects in the nation. Walker's comprehensive coverage enables readers without knowledge of Mexico to get a fuller sense of the political, economic, and social landscape . . . This study analyzes recent Mexican history in depth and breadth, and with vigor and creativity.", "Walker's work should point the way for a great deal of research in the years to come.", "This is an important work. Walker makes careful use of her sources to explain carefully how and why activism increased in the middle class during the late 20th century.", "A very lively and most interesting read, on a topic which has received a disgraceful lack of attention—the author taps a rich new vein.", "Waking from the Dream adds an important layer to the study of the urban middle class in post-revolutionary Mexico . . . Waking from the Dream provides a welcome addition to the study of urban Mexico."

Louise E. Walker is Associate Professor of History at Northeastern University.