The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002 Page: 370

370 Southwestern Historical Quarterly October
finds that fears of their expansionism fueled American Manifest Destiny. There
is an essay by Josefina Zoraida Vazquez, Mexico's leading authority on this peri-
od. She examines the many factors that led to Mexico's loss of this conflict, in-
cluding the machinations of the European powers and the proliferation of
local rebellions. Bruce Winders's essay on the behavior of volunteers in the
U.S. Army points out the chaotic and undisciplined behaviors of this group. He
examines the political intrigues and conflicts that were so important within the
U.S. military of this period.
The Mexican historian Miguel Gonzilez gives us a personal reflection on the
harsh realities of the war in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, trying to assess why this
town fell to the Americans. Michael Roth in his essay reminds us that 1846 was
also the birth of the foreign war correspondent as more than fifty newspapers
sent journalists to Mexico. They helped shape, for better or for worse, the Amer-
ican imagination about Mexico and Mexicans. Douglas Richmond presents a fas-
cinating examination of the problems that the Mexican government had in
commanding loyalty during the conflict. Collaborators of all kinds helped the
American army in its intelligence-gathering and occupation of Mexico. Rebel-
lions in the northern and southern regions of the Mexican republic during the
war weakened their war effort. The final essay by Professor Robert W. Johannsen
examines how the U.S.-Mexican War fit into the prevailing themes of popular
culture, an ebullient optimism and self-confidence, as well as an uncritical faith
in republicanism. We learn of how Whitman's early support of the war began to
lessen as he came to understand it as a moral wrong.
Dueling Eagles is an admirable attempt to present the U.S.-Mexican War as a bi-
national historical event that has various interpretations. Contemporaneous to
the creation of this anthology, KERA-TV in Dallas, Texas, finished their four-
hour PBS documentary, The U.S.-Mexican War. This documentary, produced by
Paul Espinosa and Sylvia Komatsu, involved historians from both sides of the
border--another binational effort to give a more balanced view of this conflict.
As admirable as both these efforts have been, the task is not over.
San Diego State University Richard Griswold del Castillo
Lafayette of the South: Prince Camille de Polignac and the Amencan Civil War. By Jeff
Kinard. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2001. Pp. xiii+234.
List of illustrations, acknowledgments, introduction, notes, bibliography, in-
dex. ISBN 1-58655-103-1. $34.95, cloth.)
In Lafayette of the South, historian Jeff Kinard resurrects the often overlooked
military career of the French mathematician and soldier of fortune, Prince
Camille de Polignac. While noting that Polignac served in the French army dur-
ing both the Crimean and Franco-Prussian Wars, Kinard focuses primarily on
the Frenchman's military accomplishments while an officer in the Confederate
Army during the American Civil War. Polignac began his Civil War career as a
staff officer in the western theater. He served under Generals P. G. T. Beaure-
gard, Braxton Bragg, and Edmund Kirby Smith, eventually winning distinction
for his exploits during the battle of Richmond, Kentucky, in August 1862. How-
ever, Polignac, who volunteered for service in the southern cause for fame and