America, America

1 hour writing, 3 hours researching, page count = 225

Decided to switch things up, and instead of continuing with the remaining four episodes in Chapter 4, I skipped ahead to Chapter 5 and the Conclusion, and began gathering cites for the Mexico and U.S. comparative sections. I already have something written on Mexico, and am fleshing that section out. The U.S. piece I need to do from scratch, but I got some excellent advices and cites from two Berkeley professors who study American political development, so that was a head start.

The U.S. has some interesting similarities with Colombia in the 19th century, including a stable two-party system, a continually expanding frontier (in the U.S. out toward the Pacific, in Colombia in toward the Andean mountain ranges and valleys), and a significant episode of civil war in the early 1860s. It's been interesting reading in another literature entirely and thinking about how to make the connections.

Tomorrow, I'll get back to the Chapter 4 episodes.