Machine generated contents note: pt. One Issues and Contexts -- 1. What is to be Done? -- 2. Villages, Landlords and Businessmen -- 3. Financing Mexican Government -- 4. Political Reconstruction: Before the War with the United States, 1836-1846 -- 5. Political Reconstruction: During and After the War with the United States, 1846-1855 -- 6. Persistent Pressure from the United States -- pt. Two Responses and Reactions -- 7. Social and Ethnic Tensions in their Local Contexts -- 8. Conflict in the Sierra Gorda -- Queretaro, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi -- 9. The Struggle in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the State of Oaxaca, 1847-1853 -- pt. Three Reform and Frustration -- 10. The Revolution of Ayutla and the First Stages of the Reform, 1854-1856 -- 11. The Lerdo Law of 1856 -- 12. The Federal Constitution and the Road to Disaster, February 1857-January 1858 -- 13. The Civil War of the Reform, 1858-1861 -- 14. The Continuation of the Reform and the Final Phase of the War, 1859-1860 -- 15. The Liberals Return to Power, 1861: an Unresolved Dilemma