Book excerpt: This brilliant and eminently readable cultural history looks at Mexican life during the dictatorship of Porfirio D�az, from 1876 to 1911. At that time Mexico underwent modernization, which produced a fierce struggle between the traditional and the new and exacerbating class antagonisms. In these pages, the noted historian William H. Beezley illuminates many facets of everyday Mexican life lying at the heart of this conflict and change, including sports, storytelling, healthcare, technology, and the traditional Easter-time Judas burnings that became a primary focus of the strife during those years. This second edition features a new preface by the author as well as updated and expanded text, notes, and bibliography.