LLP From the Alamo to the Halls of Moctezuma: The U.S.-Mexico War of 1846-48

Lifelong Learning Program at the Instituto Allende presents: LLP From the Alamo to the Halls of Moctezuma: The U.S.-Mexico War of 1846-48

January 9, 11, 13 (M, W, F) 1-3 p.m. 600 pesos

Our mostly forgotten 19th-century war with Mexico divided the US, led to the Civil War, caused Mexico to lose over half its territory, featured atrocities on both sides, and furthered the careers of Abraham Lincoln, US Grant, RE Lee, Zachary Taylor, Jefferson Davis, and others. This course will focus on why the war happened. Was the US justified in invading and seizing so much of Mexico? What was the role of Manifest Destiny, slavery, and US expansion? What events in Mexico, Texas, and elsewhere in the US preceded and led to the war? What was the “all-Mexico” movement, and how was the war received in the U.S.? How was the war a “training ground” for young officers such as Grant and Lee who later became Civil War commanders? What were the roles of Presidents James K. Polk and John Tyler, Mexican President Santa Anna, Henry Clay, and others? What was and is the Mexican view? And why did both the US and Mexico go to war?

Joe Belden teaches this course at the OLLI/American University program in Washington, DC. A rural-issues writer and activist based in DC, he has worked for over forty years as an advocate for rural low-income people on issues of rural poverty, affordable housing, sustainable agriculture, and other concerns. From 1989 until 2015 he was Deputy Executive Director of the Housing Assistance Council, a national nonprofit that supports affordable rural housing. He is the author of Housing in Rural America: Building Affordable and Inclusive Communities (Sage 1998); Dirt Rich, Dirt Poor: America’s Food and Farm Crisis (Routledge 1986; rev. ed. 2019); and a number of other publications. He writes regularly for The Daily Yonder and Shelterforce. Belden is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and the Baylor University Law School