Unintended Lessons of Revolution

“Unintended Lessons of Revolution demonstrates that Mexico's rural normal schools may be the most durable legacy of the 1910 revolution. Rural schoolteachers in postrevolutionary Mexico served communities not only as instructors but also as community organizers, social workers, and secular confessors and pastors. Tanalís Padilla weaves together oral histories with local and national documentary evidence into an empirically rich study of how the rural normales endured as incubators of political radicalism despite their original purpose as instruments to co-opt resistance into the postrevolutionary regime.” - Jocelyn Olcott, Professor of History, Duke University

“This is a tremendously impressive study of the rural normal school, which became a vibrant locale of social mobility, cultural change, and political mobilization of student-teachers at various stages in Mexican political history. This book transcends the constricted scope of a narrow institutional study to throw new light on a series of larger questions concerning Mexico's legacy of revolution, its failed rural policies, and the explosion of unrest among rural teachers and activists. It is a pleasure to read.” - Brooke Larson, author of Trials of Nation Making: Liberalism, Race, and Ethnicity in the Andes, 1810–1910

"Padilla draws on a rich array of archival sources and oral histories to tell this story, constructing a narrative that blends urban and rural events and perspectives and draws on episodes from various states. . . . Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." - J. M. Rosenthal, Choice

"Unintended Lessons of Revolution is a wonderful contribution to the rich historiography of agrarian history and student radicalism in Mexico." - Kevan Antonio Aguilar, Journal of Social History

"Padilla’s book casts light on the ways professionalism and professionalisation measures, both now and historically, often operate as mechanisms for consolidating state authority and minimising the agency of individual teachers and teacher associations. . . . Padilla’s book provides insights into the ongoing political violence student teachers face today, and creates a through-line from the revolutionary praxis of a century ago to the contemporary moment of global neoliberal reforms today." - Christian A. Bracho, Journal of Latin American Studies

"Unintended Lessons of Revolution will be of particular interest to scholars of education, and especially its intersection with organized labor, statecraft, institutional dynamics, political consciousness, and revolutionary ideals. This book will also be useful for its narration of twentieth-century Mexican history through the lens of rural education."
  - Finn West, Exertions

"Unintended Lessons of Revolution does much more than contextualize Ayotzinapa. It shows the profound power that the disenfranchised have, even from a position of dispossession, in occupying the imaginary of the state." - Elena Jackson Albarran, HAHR

"Padilla excels at highlighting on-the-ground voices and experiences while providing the reader at the same time with a detailed description of policy shifts at the national level. In addition, the book is graced with a series of images drawn from archival sources and teacher-produced public art. . . . [T]he beauty of this book, and history more broadly, is in illustrating how the most humble among us become historical protagonists in unexpected ways." - A.S. Dillingham, The Americas

"In her new book, Unintended Lessons of Revolution, historian Tanalís Padilla makes a deep dive into the rich and empowering history of student teachers, known as normalistas. Padilla expertly navigates the complex interplay of power, ideology, and education, illustrating how student teachers exercised their political authority by taking ownership of their educational experiences, contesting curriculum changes, and exposing the contradictions in the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s self-proclaimed revolutionary identity." - Fernando Herrera Calderón, American Historical Review