Montezuma

Publishing Information: Johannsen, R. W. To The Halls Of The Montezumas. New York, Oxford University Press, 1985, 363 pgs.

Robert W. Johannsen is a professor of American history at the University of Illinois, in Urbana. His teaching credentials and his teaching experience qualify him to write a history book on the Mexican War. This qualifies him based on occupation and knowledge of his topic, but it also has the potential to influence the sources he used (most of them from the University of Illinois Library) and his perspective of U.S. “patriotism” (a hair on the romantic side). He is apolitical regarding the war because he omits any politics or political rhetoric arguing that this detracts from his main intention of conveying the popular imagination and spirit during the era the war took place.

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I do believe that the author is biased to a large degree in the sense that he is a romantic when it comes to any government’s involvement in a war. For example, he spends a great deal of time trying to paint American intentions and mentality for involvement in the war as stemming from a desire to bring Mexico into the 19th century. However, he fails to disclose that it is supremely imperialistic to decide as a country which other countries one has a right to “force” by military might into one perspective of an era. Further, Johannsen fails to disclose that even if most of the populace believed they were doing Mexicans and Mexico a favor by trying to pull them into the 19th century, they still did not control military policy only their elected “representatives” did whose motives may not have been so innocent or pure. The book fails to underscore these realities of American politics in any era and, therefore, the author shows his bias of believing that American politics and American mentality are “superior” by validating the use of force based on good intentions. The author has written a book that makes a useful contribution to human knowledge despite his inherent human limitation of not being able to completely keep his own bi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Mexican War, Democracy Patriotism, Manifest Destiny, Mexicans Mexico, Illinois Library, ANSWER ANALYSIS, INTRODUCTION Americans, Robert Johannsen, Romance Chivalry, mexican war, Issues Johannsens, popular media, popular imagination, halls montezumas, values spirit, deeper understanding, broader understanding, media era, americans mexican war, american history, york oxford, johannsen halls montezumas, popular media era,
Approximate Word count = 1636
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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