This challenging, interpretive history of the making of modern Mexico from the Insurgent priests of the early nineteenth century to Zedillo and the Zapatistas in Chiapas of today vividly recounts Mexico's past and explains its current realities.

Krauze begins with an introduction that sketches the key elements of Mexico's past: the legacy of the Indians, Cortes, the Spanish Crown, the Mother Church, and the mixing of the Spanish and Indian population into a mestizo culture. The narrative then centers on the individual personalities of the caudillos, or leaders, around whom Mexican history has revolved.

As before, it is through the lives, personalities, and actions of the various caudillos, or Presidents, that politics, economics, history, and many features of daily life in Mexico are determined. A major question for the future of the country is whether the political system can decentralize the concentration of power in the presidential office, democratize the state, and end the cycles of history as a series of biographies of power.