pThis rich anthology provides a glimpse of modern Mexico through the eyes of foreign observers. Some of these selections are by well-known authors Alexander von Humboldt, John Reed, B. Traven, Evelyn Waugh. Some are unpublished pieces by little-known writers, and six are available here for the first time in English.ppThe writings fall into four periods the transitions to independence and Mexico's first decades as a sovereign country 1800-1867, the era of Liberal modernization 1867-1910, the Mexican Revolution 1910-1940, and the post-World War II era. Four major topics show up repeatedly ethnicity, gender, and race cultural differences between Mexicans and foreigners political stability and instability and the economy and its impact on Mexicans. Although observers expressed a wide range of viewpoints on these issues, they agreed in finding a stunning degree of ethnic and regional diversity as well as what they saw as stark contrasts between urban and rural, rich and poor, modernity and