By the end of 1919, Zapata had been assassinated; Villa could no longer mount an effective campaign and retired to his ranch in Chihuahua; and Obregon was preparing for his presidential battle with Carranza. When Carranza declared himself the election winner in 1920, he was chased out of town and assassinated while en route to Veracruz. Obregon, the real winner of the election then took office.
This is usually where the civil war is marked as complete, even though there was some fighting still going on. With Zapata and Carranza dead and Villa in retirement, there were few others to mount any serious attempt at national power. Obregon emerged at last as the leader to take the country forward.
Overall, I would give McLynn high marks for his dedication to detail, the fact that he gave each main character a range and depth meritorious of their involvement in the civil war years and linked them together as best as possible given the fact that their roles and their allegiance seems to change every few months. The tale of those years of strife, one that saw some 300,000 Mexicans, and a few crazy Americans, die while attacking, defending, marching, parading, fleeing, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The story is complex, the main players many and diverse, and the agendas confusing and constantly being revised. It would be hard for any foreigner to understand Mexico and the Mexican culture from that time period, but McLynn does a pretty good job of cutting through the veneer and getting down to the nitty-gritty. I would have liked to have seen more emphasis put on the burden of life for the average person, but given the overall multifaceted nature of the subject matter at hand, I can pardon him for not adding another 100 pages to his masterpiece. For anyone who is interested in getting a good grasp of what is commonly referred to as the Mexican Revolution, this book holds the key that unlocks the goods.
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