ePub Lincoln's Defense of Politics: The Public Man and His Opponents in the Crisis Over Slavery (Shades of Blue and Gray) by Thomas E. Schneider in History

Description

In the mid-nineteenth century prophetic visions attributed to a woman named Madre Matiana roiled Mexican society. Pamphlets of the time proclaimed that decades earlier a humble laywoman foresaw the nation’s calamitous destiny―foreign invasion; widespread misery; and chronic civil strife. The revelations; however; pinpointed the cause of Mexico’s struggles: God was punishing the nation for embracing blasphemous secularism. Responses ranged from pious alarm to incredulous scorn. Although most likely a fiction cooked up amid the era’s culture wars; Madre Matiana’s persona nevertheless endured. In fact; her predictions remained influential well into the twentieth century as society debated the nature of popular culture; the crux of modern nationhood; and the role of women; especially religious women. Here Edward Wright-Rios examines this much-maligned―and sometimes celebrated―character and her position in the development of a nation.