The Mexican War, 1846-1848

Labeled unjust by critics at the time, the Mexican War added over a million square miles to the United States and created a lasting division between America and its neighbor to the south. Western historian Sam Haynes looks beyond ideas of “Manifest Destiny” to explain America’s first war on foreign soil and explores the significance of a conflict that made the U.S. into a continental power and established a border that continues to trouble the nation today.

Sam Haynes is associate professor of history and director of the Center for Southwestern Studies at the University of Texas-Arlington.  He is the author of James K. Polk and the Expansionist Impulse, editor of The United States and Mexico at War: Expansion and Conflict and co-editor of Manifest Destiny and Empire. The recipient of numerous awards and research fellowships, Haynes has also served as an historical advisor for PBS and History Channel series about the Mexican War.