The Mexican Revolution produced some romantic and heroic figures. In Mexico at the time, however, one man loomed large as the embodiment of revolutionary goals and the one leader able to take the country from strife into peace. That man was Alvaro Obregon. Less well-known to North Americans than his contemporaries and sometime allies Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, Obregon eventually formed the first stable government of post-revolutionary Mexico. Stories of his daring and near-invincibility abounded as he led revolutionary forces against the usurper Huerta, then against the bandit elements within the Revolution itself. Throughout the period of fighting, however, Obregon was shrewdly building coalitions of support and espousing concrete programs that would allow him to institutionalize power when the fighting ended.

This political and social study of Obregon’s rise to power, based on extensive archival research and interviews with revolutionary participants, provides an important perspective not only on the Revolution itself but also on its consolidation in the hands of an extraordinary leader. Students of Mexican history will find the book indispensable; others will find it a fascinating story of a man, a people, and how they lay the bases of peace in the midst of war.