Recollections of Mexico

"The events described herein are intended to be a new public contribution to the history of the Mexican empire. I have seen and experienced these events during the most memorable months of my life." With these words, an unlikely individual began to pen a valuable historical memoir. What started as a volunteer mission to Mexico quickly thrust Samuel Basch, an obscure Austrian medical doctor, into the role of confidant and personal physician to Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico. 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. Recollections of Mexico: The Last Ten Months of Maximilian's Empire offers scholars a rare authoritative source on this little-known, yet important, period in Mexican history. Written in 1868, Basch's memoir has been masterfully translated word for word from the original German by editor Fred D. Ullman, a distant relative of Dr. Basch, and it includes his annotations and comments that further augment the text. Basch begins his account by 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 his execution by firing squad on June 19, 1867, only three years after ascending the throne. Basch writes with a style that is at once detached and yet quite sentimental. He describes his interaction with the Emperor as well as Maximilian's rapidly crumbling hold on power. This memoir is a unique and necessary resource on nineteenth-century Mexican history. - Jacket flap.