Buffington, Robert M.: "A Sentimental Education for the Working Man: The Mexico City Penny Press, 1900-1910."(Book review)

• Author: Rothera, Evan C.

Buffington, Robert M. A Sentimental Education for the Working Man: The Mexico City Penny Press, 1900-1910. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015.

Robert M. Buffington, Professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, has written extensively on Mexican history. Buffington published a monograph: Criminal and Citizen in Modern Mexico (University of Nebraska Press, 2000), as well as several articles, and edited a volume with Pablo Piccato entitled True Stories of Crime in Modern Mexico (University of New Mexico Press, 2009). As such, he is an acknowledged authority on Mexican history. The author utilizes twenty-seven Mexico City penny press newspapers to illustrate how the editors of these papers produced a sentimental education for working-class men that was "less patronizing, less coercive, more realistic, and more comprehensive than anything produced by the authorities" (5).

The first two chapters explore efforts by the penny press to construct popular alternatives to official stories and discuss how editors attempted to forge bonds of affection between popular figures like Miguel Hidalgo and Benito Juarez and the...