Book Description

iThe events described herein are intended to be a new public contributionto the history of the Mexican Empire. I have seen and experienced these events during the most memorable months of my life./i With these words, an unlikely individual began to pen a valuable historical memoir. What started as a volunteer mission to Mexico quickly thrust obscure Samuel Basch, Austrian medical doctor, into the role of confidant and personal physician to Maximilian, Emperor of the short-lived Mexican empire. Keenly aware of the magnitude of the drama surrounding him and his position as an insider, Basch kept daily notes and astutely observed the court intrigues and other events of his days with the Emperor. This carefully gathered information was then crafted into a compelling firsthand overview of the last months of Maximilian, who was persuaded in 1864 to take the throne as part of Napoleon III's scheme to establish an empire in Mexico.P iRecollections of Mexico The Last Ten Months of Maximilian's Empirei offers scholars a rare authoritative source on this little-known, yet important, period in Mexican history. Written in 1868, this book has been masterfully translated word for word from the original German by editor Fred D. Ullman, a distant relative of Dr. Basch, and includes his added annotations and comments that further augment the text. p Basch begins his account chronicling the last months leading up to the overthrow of Maximilian by Mexican Republicans. He recounts the defeat of the Emperor's army, his subsequent capture, and execution by firing squad on June 19, 1867. He describes his interaction with the Emperor as well as Maximilian's rapidly crumbling hold on power. Basch writes with a style that is at once detached and yet quite sentimental.p This memoir is a unique and necessary addition to courses on nineteenth-century Mexican history.p