Southwestern Historical Quarterly
North Carolina Conference adopted a resolution of censure, he gave
up and resigned his position a few months later.
The book is a valuable document, not only in the story of
Duke, but also in the history of collegiate education generally.
Many southern college presidents might recount similar tales of
disillusionment. The style is readable, frank, and clear. Unfor-
tunately, the last few chapters show less coherence and greater
emotional stress than those that precede. They appear not to be
in the final form that the author might have given them had
he lived longer, for Dr. Crowell died in August, 1931.
ROBERT ADGER LAw.
The University of Texas.
The Mexican Revolution of Ayutla, 1854-1855. By Richard A.
Johnson. (Rock Island, Illinois: Augustana College Li-
brary, 1939. Number 17, Augustana Library Publications.
Pp. 125. Bibliography.)
The revolution of Ayutla initiated the second of three periods
of civil strife which helped to transform Mexico from a semi-
feudal state into a modern nation. The second series of revolu-
tions in Mexican history began on March 1, 1854, continued
through the bloody war of La Reforma, and ended with the
destruction of Maximilian's empire. Only the first or destructive
phase of the revolution is treated by Dr. Johnson in this mono-
graph. Santa Anna's last dictatorship is given careful attention
because it was largely responsible for provoking the conflict. Par-
ticular attention is paid to the causes of the uprising in 1854,
its political and military events, and the unsuccessful counter-
revolutionary movements which delayed its triumph.
Professor Johnson shows that while a constitutional question
furnished the pretext for the conflict, political issues merely
cloaked a more fundamental clash of economic and social interests.
Ecclesiastical hierarchs, powerful lay property owners, and easily
purchased militarists were usually conservatives; while the liberal
party attracted the less prosperous creoles and mestizos who sought
to profit from political changes or championed liberalism from
patriotic motives. He devotes one chapter to the evolution and
early policies of Santa Anna's last dictatorship and points out
in a carefully documented study why civil war was unavoidable.
Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940. Austin, Texas. The Portal to Texas History. http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101111/. Accessed March 6, 2015.