Dr. Andrew Paxman, research professor at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico, will speak at 4 pm, Wednesday, October 18, at 4 pm, in the Summersell Room. Paxman’s talk is entitled “A Southerner South of the Border: How William Jenkins Became Mexico’s Richest Industrialist,” and is based upon his new book, Jenkins of Mexico: How a Southern Farm Boy Became a Mexican Magnate (OUP 2017).

Paxman’s book traces the life of Jenkins from his Tennessee roots to his rise in Mexico from the revolutionary decade of the 1910s (buying up fire-sale-priced real estate from penurious patricians), becoming an industrialist and a major influence during Mexico’s Golden Age of Cinema (1940s and 1950s), when he held a monopoly on Mexican cinemas and production.

Paxman, a British journalist in Mexico during the 1990s (writing for Vanity Fair and other major publications), received his PhD in History from the University of Texas (2008).

Paxman’s talk is sure to be of interest to all students of US and Southern History.

Sponsored by the Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies Program, the Bankhead Fund, the Charles G. Summersell Chair of Southern History, and the Department of History.