The editors of the Oxford New World History series do not lack ambition. They aim to produce accessible, up-to-date histories of different regions, encompassing global influences, global comparisons, elites and masses. This is a tall order for any textbook, let alone one of 179 pages covering several millennia. Unsurprisingly, this book is more successful in some respects than others. Beezley assumes that most readers will be familiar with some aspects of Mexican culture as it has been disseminated around the world – tacos, mariachis, telenovelas – but will know less about the development of Mexican society and politics, and this seems fair enough. He provides a lively, socially inclusive narrative of Mexico's history. There is perhaps not as much global context as promised by the title, and historiography could be better integrated, although some omissions are inevitable in such a synthesis. The most serious problems are more prosaic and editorial.

In the preface, Beezley writes that he hopes the book will provide some historical perspective on contemporary debates about immigration and illegal drugs, but these issues do not provide the real thrust of the narrative. Migration patterns crop up occasionally, but the treatment of drugs is very thin. Readers familiar with Beezley's other scholarship will recognise his main interest: exploring episodes of everyday life and culture as windows into larger historical processes. The chapters provide a narrative of national politics and occasional social and economic context, but work best when Beezley uses unexpected cultural examples – colonial-era rituals, the national anthem, public kisses, baseball, cartoons – to illustrate how men and women experienced and made sense of Mexican history. The book begins with chapters on early indigenous civilisations and Spanish colonialism, but the main focus is on the period since 1810. Chapter 3 covers 1810–44, and provides a brisk narrative of independence. Chapter 4 discusses international and civil wars and how they affected the gradual triumph of liberalism. Both chapters offer an admirably clear account of a chaotic period. Chapter 5 interprets the Porfiriato – summed up in the title ‘Progress for Mexico and Some Mexicans, 1876–1911’ – and emphasises the sometimes overlooked presidency of Manuel González. Two chapters then cover the Mexican Revolution and its aftermath until the economic collapse of 1982. A final chapter brings the story up to the present.

The global context arrives mainly in the form of various foreign influences on Mexico. Chapters cover the traditional stuff of war and diplomacy – there is plenty on the US–Mexican War – alongside broader cultural and material influences, from Catholicism and positivism to tourism and army and navy stores. Still, Beezley is keen to show how Mexicans usually adapted foreign ideas and goods to their own purposes. Mexican influences on the outside world are mentioned sporadically: the Cortes of Cádiz and European liberalism; German reactions to Mexico's victory over the French on 5 May 1863; Jaime Torres Bodet's involvement in the United Nations. However, students in search of a thorough account of Mexico's external influence – why some aspects of Mexican culture are well known and others obscure – will likely be disappointed, as will those searching for an account of less familiar connections with Africa and Asia. Likewise, those looking for a systematic comparison of Mexican history with empires, revolutions and democracies elsewhere will have to find (or perhaps write) another book.

The strongest sections include some historiography, although discussion is somewhat uneven. Beezley is good on the politics of history, noting how governments from the Aztecs to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI) manipulated history to legitimise their rule. There are some comments on competing interpretations and empirical problems, although these peak in the first chapter and then gradually taper off. Given that the list of suggested readings includes studies by Matthew Restall and Peter Guardino, readers might have expected a little more on recent debates over, say, the causes of the conquest or popular liberalism. Beezley could also be more specific about his historiographical interlocutors, particularly when it comes to the revolution. Early on he criticises those scholars who would ignore revolutionary caudillos, but the identity and reasoning of these scholars is hazy. Dating the end of Mexico's revolution is a tricky business. Many accounts identify a turning point around 1940 with a decline of radicalism; Beezley seems to prefer an ending around 1982, and emphasises not a decline in radicalism but continuities in social reform, albeit in a new context of generational change and urban growth. This is certainly an interesting interpretation, but it would have benefited from a clear definition of terms and discussion of competing interpretations. Oddly, chapters 6 and 7 overlap – covering 1911–46 and 1938–82 respectively – and this does not add clarity.

Given the book's strengths, it is a shame that the text has not been edited and proofread to the required standard. There are some errors of fact: Félix Zuloaga became president in 1858, not 1853 (p. 67); Emilio Portes Gil served as a military lawyer but never occupied a command post (p. 116); Carlos Salinas de Gortari was not the only president to graduate from the National University, and Miguel de La Madrid did not succeed him as president (p. 141); and did Lázaro Cárdenas really exhibit ‘a brash nonchalance about death’ (p. 105)? More serious are the many typographical errors. Spanish accents and capitals are the main offenders, but there are also numerous errors of punctuation and misspellings, including of proper nouns. The intended audience – general readers and undergraduates – may still profit from reading this book, since it provides an approachable, wide-ranging introduction to Mexican history, with rather more on foreign influences and popular culture than competing textbooks; but the number of errors does that audience no favours.