Dwight W. Morrow

María del Carmen Collado Herrera has written a well-crafted and judicious account of the achievements and failures of Dwight W. Morrow during his tenure as U.S. ambassador to Mexico (1927–1930). Morrow's appointment came at a time when relations between the two countries neared the breaking point because of issues stemming from the Mexican Revolution, such as threats to U.S. oil interests and expropriations of land owned by U.S. citizens. Aggravating those tensions was the hostility of Morrow's predecessor, James Rockwell Sheffield (1924–1927), toward President Plutarco Elías Calles and his administration. Morrow's apparent success in defusing those tensions has produced a substantial body of literature, addressed by Collado in her introduction. It ranges from the diatribes of José Vasconcelos, who depicted Morrow as the “proconsul” sent to assert U.S. hegemony over Mexico, to Richard Melzer's 1979 dissertation, which deprecates Morrow's contributions. Collado starts by recounting Morrow's early life: his modest beginnings in West Virginia, his success as a lawyer and partner in the banking firm of J. P. Morgan, and his marriage to the literary-minded Elizabeth Cutter. In 1921 Morrow undertook a mission to Cuba on behalf of Morgan, an experience that Collado believes showed his ability to put himself in another's shoes and that served him well in Mexico

Art · Economic history · Hegemony · Humanities · Political science · Politics · Historical Studies in Latin America · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Mexican Socioeconomic and Environmental Dynamics