Sons of the Mexican Revolution: Miguel Alemán and His Generation by Ryan M. Alexander (review)
The period from 1946 to 1952 was a turning point in Mexican politics. Elites put aside the socially redistributive programs of land reform, worker support, and socialist education, which had shaped the first two decades of the post-revolutionary period. Instead, they embraced the twin policies of industrial growth and political stability. Infrastructure investment, favorable tax breaks, and protectionist trade policies benefited the financial entrepreneurs, factory owners, and large-scale merchants. Bans on radical parties, increasingly restrictive voting controls, and electoral fraud minimized disruption and kept the system in place. At the center of these changes was postrevolutionary Mexico’s first civilian president, Miguel Alemán Valdés, and his coterie of high school and university friends—the so-called “amigos.”