General and the Jaguar

Eileen Welsome is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Her first book, The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War, was the recipient of two PEN awards.

"Welsome approaches her subject with a novelistic eye for character and minutiae, devoting as much care to describing Villa's eyes as she does to his military philosophy. These digressive flourishes lend a raw humanism to her account of the attack, which plays as a series of horrifying vignettes and serves as the book's centerpiece."-Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly "Welsome lets the story-of an attack by foreign forces on U.S. soil, the racial and political turmoil it caused, the expense it necessitated and the frustration it provoked-tell itself. It's a good story, even if it sounds painfully familiar."-Charles Matthews, Houston Chronicle -- Charles Matthews Houston Chronicle "The General and The Jaguar explores the volatile issues of nationalism, patriotism, and revolutionary fervor. It also looks at the dangers of one country sending a military expedition--in pursuit of a presumed, singular threat to national security--into another hostile, foreign country for the purposes of removing a menace who has terrorized citizens. It also, by the way, examines the ways in which militarization of a border can cause unanticipated problems. Yes, Welsome has written brilliantly about an incident that occurred in the early twentieth century. But The General and The Jaguar seems strangely relevant to the early twenty-first century. See what you think."-BookLoons BookLoons "A fast-moving and engrossing narrative... [Welsome] provides a highly readable and informative account, which also offers interesting portraits of some key figures in the Mexican Revolution."-Booklist Booklist "A well-paced narrative account... The skillful manner in which Welsome chronicles these events should enthrall anyone interested in this period."-New Mexico Magazine New Mexico Magazine

• ProloguePart I: The Attack1. A Microbe Challenges an Elephant2. A Diverting Brute3. Veracruz4. Downhill5. Tell President Wilson to Save You6. Only One Chance to Die7. Rumors, Warnings, and Telegrams8. Villa Is Coming Tonight, for Sure9. The Fiddler Plays10. Very Unnatural DeathsPart II: The Hunt11. To the End of the Furrow12. Sunburn, Frostbite, and Blisters13. Pershing's Indigestion14. No One to Seek ForPart III: Revenge and Rvival15. Gasoline Baths and Confessions16. Jerked to Jesus17. A Ripe Pear18. A Terrible Blunder19. Whore Dust and a Rabid Dog20. An Old Colonel21. A Reborn Town22. Victims or Bandits?23. Death Comes for the HorsemenAcknowledgmentsCasualties of the Columbus RaidChronologyNotesSelected BibliographyIndex