Unprecedented in the historiography of post-independence Mexico for its combination of rich archival detail and chronological scope, this book focuses on the wealthy men and women of the state of Michoac n from the last decades of colonial rule to the 1910 Revolution. The breadth of its documentary base and the sweeping span of time it covers transcend narrow social history to enlarge our understanding of the economic, political, and intellectual history of nineteenth-century Mexico. Though not primarily a study of development or politics, the book nonetheless suggests strikingly original answers to the central question about Mexico s first century as a nation: to what can we attribute the failures of the Mexican economy and the Mexican political system? Among her major findings, the author concludes that for Michoac n, at least, Mexico s nineteenth-century depression was in fact two distinct economic collapses one following the wars of the insurgency and the other coming after the Reform of the late 1850 s separated by a period of relative prosperity in the 1840 s and early 1850 s.