{"product_id":"jenkins-of-mexico-how-a-southern-farm-boy-became-a-mexican-magnate-9780190455743","title":"Jenkins of Mexico: How a Southern Farm Boy Became a Mexican Magnate","description":"In the city of Puebla there lived an American who made himself into the richest man in Mexico. Driven by a steely desire to prove himself-first to his wife's family, then to Mexican elites-William O. Jenkins rose from humble origins in Tennessee to build a business empire in a country energized by industrialization and revolutionary change. In Jenkins of Mexico, Andrew Paxman presents the first biography of this larger-than-life personality. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen the decade-long Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, Jenkins preyed on patrician property owners and bought up substantial real estate. He suffered a scare with a firing squad and then a kidnapping by rebels, an episode that almost triggered a US invasion. After the war he owned textile mills, developed Mexico's most productive sugar plantation, and helped finance the rise of a major political family, the �vila Camachos. During the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s-50s, he lorded over the film industry with his movie theater monopoly and key role in production. By means of Mexico's first major hostile takeover, he bought the country's second-largest bank. Reputed as an exploiter of workers, a puppet-master of politicians, and Mexico's wealthiest industrialist, Jenkins was the gringo that Mexicans loved to loathe. After his wife's death, he embraced philanthropy and willed his entire fortune to a foundation named for her, which co-founded two prestigious universities and funded projects to improve the lives of the poor in his adopted country. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUsing interviews with Jenkins' descendants, family papers, and archives in Puebla, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Washington, \u003cem\u003e Jenkins of Mexico\u003c\/em\u003e tells a contradictory tale of entrepreneurship and monopoly, fearless individualism and cozy deals with power-brokers, embrace of US-style capitalism and political anti-Americanism, and Mexico's transformation from semi-feudal society to emerging economic power.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAndrew Paxman\u003c\/strong\u003e teaches history and journalism at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City and Aguascalientes. He is the co-author of \u003cem\u003eEl Tigre\u003c\/em\u003e, a biography of the Mexican media mogul Emilio Azc?rraga Milmo.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Oxford Univ PR","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50844066119954,"sku":"9780190455743","price":37.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_44471d27-56d4-4d37-8987-4f1f1fa75071.jpg?v=1737309498","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/jenkins-of-mexico-how-a-southern-farm-boy-became-a-mexican-magnate-9780190455743","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}