The history of a dictatorship's demise—and the many power struggles that followed on the rocky road to democracy in early twentieth-century Mexico.   The Mexican Revolution is one of the most important and ambitious sociopolitical experiments in modern times. This history by Charles C. Cumberland addresses the early years of this period, as the long dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz was finally overthrown and he was driven into exile due to the efforts of revolutionary reformer Francisco Madero, with the assistance of the famed Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata among others. Madero would become president—but would not last long in this role. This is the story of the events that would lead to years of bloody battles on the road to an eventual constitutional republic.   "Not only a solid contribution to Mexicana...but proof that political history can be organized logically around a leading personality...Provocative, readable, and interpretative." — The Americas