LaFRANCE, David G(erald) 1948-

PERSONAL: Born December 27, 1948, in Wyalusing, PA.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Scholarly Resources, 104 Greenhill Ave., Wilmington, DE 19805.

CAREER: Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, former professor of history; University of Lodz, Poland, International and Political Studies, instructor in American history and politics.

WRITINGS:

The Mexican Revolution in Puebla, 1908-1913: The

Maderista Movement and the Failure of Liberal Reform, Scholarly Resources (Wilmington, DE), 1989.

(Editor, with Errol D. Jones) Latin American MilitaryHistory: An Annotated Bibliography, Garland (New York, NY), 1992.

(With Guy P. C. Thomson) Patriotism, Politics, andPopular Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Juan Francisco Lucas and the Puebla Sierra, Scholarly Resources (Wilmington, DE), 1999.

(Editor, with Joseph L. Arbena) Sport in Latin America and the Caribbean, Scholarly Resources (Wilmington, DE), 2002.

Revolution in Mexico's Heartland: Politics, War, andState Building in Puebla, 1913-1920, Scholarly Resources (Wilmington, DE), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: David G. LaFrance, a former professor of history at Oregon State University, has written a number of books about the political and military history of Mexico and Latin America. His first book on the subject, The Mexican Revolution in Puebla, 1908-1913: The Maderista Movement and the Failure of Liberal Reform, is about Francisco Madero, who has long been known as the "apostle of democracy" for his role in the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Mexico was going through severe socioeconomic problems at the time, and Madero led the revolt in the state of Puebla that helped overturn the former regime. However, LaFrance points out that Madero was an ineffective leader because of his liberal policies and lack of connection with the masses. Alan Knight explained in the Journal of Latin American Studies that "the author sees the failure of Maderista liberalism in Puebla as symptomatic of the chronic failure of liberalism in Mexico, and elsewhere." In the end, commented Douglas Richmond in Americas, LaFrance's book is "a useful, stimulating work that will serve to enlighten those who are interested in the Madero period of Mexican history."

Military history being a central part of Latin America's development, LaFrance decided to coedit a book with Errol D. Jones on the subject, which resulted in their Latin American Military History: An Annotated Bibliography. The editors picked experts in the field to write thirteen individual chapters on the different aspects of the military history. LaFrance also contributed the chapter on Mexican military history. The chapters cover the various nations, as well as the different periods in history. Paul B. Goodwin, Jr. wrote in the Journal of Military History that the book "is an excellent compilation of primary and secondary sources published to about 1990." And P. L. Holmer noted in Choice that, "considering the recent Latin experience with military governments, this is a tool that will be appreciated by a wide audience."

LaFrance returns to the subject of Mexican history in Patriotism, Politics, and Popular Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Juan Francisco Lucas and the Puebla Sierra, which looks at the critical period in Mexican history from 1855 to 1910. Specifically, LaFrance, who wrote the book with Guy P. C. Thomson, looks at Juan Francisco Lucas. Lucas was a military leader from the Sierra Norte region of the state of Puebla who inspired and recruited native troops to support the political causes of the time. Lucas had earned such loyalty from the people that Mexican leaders had to accept his importance in the political arena. Of this book, Matthew Butler, writing in Journal of Latin American Studies, said, "This volume is an impressively well-researched regional history which examines the popular 'take-up' of liberal ideas in Puebla from the nineteenth-century civil wars to the revolution." And Historian contributor Jennie Purnell called the book a "major contribution" to the history of Mexico.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February, 1991, review of The Mexican Revolution in Puebla, 1908-1913: The Maderista Movement and the Failure of Liberal Reform, p. 295.

Americas, October, 1990, Douglas Richmond, review of The Mexican Revolution in Puebla, p. 242.

Choice, March, 1990, review of The Mexican Revolution in Puebla, p. 1219; June, 1993, P. L. Holmer, review of Latin American Military History: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 1606.

Historian, summer, 2001, Jennie Purnell, review of Patriotism, Politics, and Popular Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Juan Francisco Lucas and the Puebla Sierra, p. 852.

Journal of Latin American Studies, February, 1991, Alan Knight, review of The Mexican Revolution in Puebla, p. 234; February, 2002, Matthew Butler, review of Patriotism, Politics, and Popular Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico, p. 172.

Journal of Military History, October, 1993, Paul B. Goodwin, Jr., review of Latin American Military History, p. 745.

Journal of Social History, summer, 2001, Robert H. Jackson, review of Patriotism, Politics, and Popular Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico, p. 1026.

Latin American Research Review, Volume 28, number 2, 1993, Heather Fowler-Salamini, review of The Mexican Revolution in Puebla, pp. 175-190.

RQ, summer, 1994, William Buchanan, review of LatinAmerican Military History, p. 482.*