Recounting the decade of bloody events that followed the eruption of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, this chronicle of the first seismic social convulsion of the twentieth century explores the regional, international, cultural, racial, and economic strife that made the rebels Francisco (Pancho) Villa and Emiliano Zapata legends in their time. Fast-paced and fascinating, at once a dual biography and a history, Villa and Zapata vividly illuminates the turbulent mix of revolution as it follows the maneuvers of native rebels, corrupt Mexican officials, the U.S. government, American oil interests, Blackjack Pershing's troops, and German secret agents. It manifests the power of the slogan Tierra y Libertad (Land and Liberty), which spurred the revolutionaries to bring down a succession of autocrats in Mexico City as they waged a devastating war on two fronts: In the north the ruthless Villa led a mobile army of ex-cowboys and ranchers, while in the south Zapata galvanized an infantry recruited from the peons on the sugar plantations.
