Mexico

 Mexico: A 500-Year History by Paul Gillingham is a gigantic read. Covering Cortez to El Chapo, the book's pace is, broadly speaking, a little less than a page per year, offering a sweeping account of a land marked by complexities and contradictions. My biggest takeaway is that our southern neighbor is decentralized. Everything from government to language to drug organizations to racial categories are a labyrinthine mix of historical forces and diverse landscapes. One early argument Gillingham makes is that the Spanish never fully subdued indigenous communities (nor were they really trying to), and that for five centuries pockets of independence existed, including this century's EZLN rebels in Chiapas. A professor at Northwestern, Gillingham has a gift for perspective, putting stereotypes about Mexico (its violence, its colonialism, etc.) in context with other nations, especially the US. The result is a well-paced big history that tracks in macro terms things like population growth, migration, economics, health metrics, narcotics, foreign influence, and social movements.  Given the unwieldy nature of its subject--an enormous country at the crossroads of hemispheres--it's a remarkably lucid and informative read.