In Forty Miles from the Sea, Rachel Moore's prime concern is to argue that Xalapa, inland and at 1,500 metres above sea level, constituted a virtual Atlantic frontier and a surrogate port city. Entry permits into New Spain and, later, the Mexican Republic would be issued at Veracruz, but passports for the onward journey would be issued in Xalapa, once the traveller or merchant's purpose had been properly scrutinised. In view of the real danger of yellow fever outbreaks in the port of Veracruz, especially during the rainy season, the author points to the ‘reconstitution of port functions inland’ (p. 74). A quarantine station was established in 1806 in the region of Xalapa.

The general idea behind this book, then, is to place Xalapa within the Atlantic world, despite its location in the tierra templada. The model is the growing literature on ‘Atlantic history’ and on port cities in particular. Xalapa belonged to ‘Atlantic Mexico’ (p. 2): this town and Veracruz lived in a ‘lopsided symbiosis’ (p. 35). The Xalapa–Veracruz corridor, linked to Atlantic concerns, always retained a certain autonomy towards central government, whether viceregal or republican. These features explained the nineteenth-century appeal of federalism and liberalism. Xalapa became the site of the commercial fairs for the transatlantic trade, the first of them held in 1720; it became a villa in 1791, was attached to the jurisdiction of the newly established Consulado of Veracruz in 1795, and was raised to the status of the state capital of Veracruz in 1823.

By contrast, the other city on the slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental, Orizaba, further to the south, remained ‘anchored to central Mexico’ (p. 81). Throughout the book, the author makes a point of contrasting the experiences of these two cities. It is a pity that Orizaba has not been included in the book's title, a decision which would have made the comparative dimension uppermost. What we might call the lesser comparison between Orizaba and Córdoba might also have been broached: one is told in Orizaba that the city clings more closely to Puebla, while Córdoba looks more to Veracruz. Perhaps there might have been less emphasis on the ‘public sphere’ idea and shorter discussion of the details of the postal services, and much more to strengthen and develop the comparative character of the book. The subject of a historical comparative analysis of the two cities, Xalapa and Orizaba, is a gift, and the author already has the data from which to construct it. I appreciate that this is just one reviewer's perspective, and one, I should admit, who has never been impressed by the all-embracing role attributed to the ‘public sphere’, a hypothesis derived from Habermas and given prominence by François-Xavier Guerra. This notion is a creeping tide, submerging historical issues beneath it. The attention given to it here threatens to sink a comparative study repeatedly struggling for the surface.

In the middle of the book, Santa Anna makes an appearance. As befits this son of Xalapa, he is given special treatment from p. 102 to p. 118. Rachel Moore convincingly argues that Santa Anna's character and viewpoint were rooted in the Atlantic world of the Xalapa–Veracruz corridor. His frequent periods of residence on his Hacienda Manga de Clavo, purchased in 1825, resulted from his instinctive dislike of party and ideology. From there, he exercised leverage; this makes his political behaviour seem less erratic and less opportunistic. While such a view coincides with what might be described as the ‘new Santa Anna historiography’, the author does stress the onerous and conflictive nature of censorship under the general's rule, especially the Lares Press Law of 1853, and reminds us of the expulsion of Juárez and Ocampo, though without comment. Opinion in Xalapa quickly cooled towards the resplendent general. The author might have made some mention of Santa Anna's catastrophic behaviour at Cerro Gordo in 1847, which allowed the US invaders entry into central Mexico.

Santa Anna stands out in the book because few other local figures appear consistently. Instead, there is constant reference to ‘Xalapeños’ and ‘Orizabeños’ without saying who any of them were. Here the comparative dimension might have taken a grip: in what ways, for instance, did the personnel of the town councils of the two cities differ from one another and over time? If they did, how significant was this? Postmasters are given considerable attention, but Orizaba's resident writer, Rafael Delgado, is not mentioned once despite probably being Mexico's most important nineteenth-century novelist.

On p. 101, the author tells us that the experiences of Santa Anna and the War of Reform radically altered the relation of Xalapa and Orizaba to the central government. Although we have Santa Anna, the reform, by comparison, has somehow slipped out of the picture. Much could have been made of the different experience of the two towns during this period of intense conflict. We are told about pamphlets, broadsheets and periodicals, but how did the great issues of the day divide opinion?

These remarks are designed to encourage a ‘sequel’ to the present Forty Miles from the Sea, which this reviewer would certainly welcome. The two towns, as I have intimated, make a marvellous research topic when taken together – that is, as opposed to histories of one or the other written in isolation. The State of Veracruz is rich and diverse and has a long and varied history. Although current historiography has placed attention on peasant and Indian communities in the northern areas – Papantla and the Huasteca, for example – the central core towns and the south have been strangely neglected. Rachel Moore's research makes a helpful contribution to remedying this neglect, and I hope she continues with this theme.