Jaclyn Ann Sumner is Associate Professor of History at Presbyterian College.
"""Indigenous Autocracy reveals how Tlaxcala's Próspero Cahuantzi managed to stay in power for twenty-six years as one of Mexico's few 'full-blooded' Indigenous governors. Compellingly arguing that the secret to Cahuantzi's political longevity was a deft and selective use of his indigeneity and its signifiers, the book effectively integrates cultural, political, and environmental history to revise our understanding of Porfirian Mexico.""—Mikael Wolfe, Stanford University ""Reconstructing in painstaking detail the life and times of a powerful Indigenous governor, Jaclyn Ann Sumner gives us a heady combination of predictable elite thuggery and development with far less predictable racial politics, regional autonomy, development, environmental consideration, and even populism. The result is credible, readable, and professionally unmissable.""—Paul Gillingham Northwestern University ""Sumner's Indigenous Autocracy masterfully demonstrates how bringing together research on race, the environment, technology, and local history can illuminate broader changes in identity politics, nation-state construction, development, and power.""—Justin Castro, H-Environment"