Daniela Spenser is a professor at Centro de Investigaciones у Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social in Mexico City. Her research focuses on the history of communism and the Cold War in Mexico and Latin America.

• AcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsAbbreviationsIntroductionPart 1 Changing Times and Ideas1 Family1The Village2Children3Vicente Lombardo Toledano4The Wise Man5The Family2 Knowledge and Power1Renewal2The Break3On the Campaign Trail4From the Government Palace5On the Road to the Chamber of Deputies6The Trip7The Polemical Dispute8Ideological Passion3 Exodus1In the CROM2Collapse3The Labour Law4The Road to the LeftPart 2 Crusades4 A Journey into the World of the Future1The Preparations2The Trip3Different Perspectives4Back in Mexico5The President and the Leader6The Gide Case5 The Foundations of the Nation1The Preparations2The First Pillar3Into Action4The Schism5Disunity6The President and the Leader6 A Continental Feat1In Santiago de Chile2The Planning3In the United States4In Europe5The Founding Congress6To the AttackPart 3 War: Threshold of a Better World?7 Fight Fascism!1The Defeat of the Spanish Republic2Exile3Face to Face with Leon Trotsky4The Pact and Its Violation5In Soviet Intelligence6The Undesirable Anti-fascists8 The Illusory Unity1On the Campaign Trail2The Victory3The Farewell4The Re-election5The Elusive Unity9 The Fragile Harmony1The Latin American Panorama2The Congress3The Celebrated Trip4The Catavi Massacre5Coups and Blows6From Montevideo to Caracas7From Philadelphia to Cali8The Elusive HarmonyPart 4 Animosities and Confrontations10 For the Renewal of the Nation1The Future2On the Campaign Trail3The Roundtable4Elections in the CTM5The Expulsion6The Crisis of the Nation11 For the Spilled Blood1The Postwar Map2In London3In Paris4In the Other Europe5Confrontations6In People 's China12 Emancipation1Removing Obstacles2On an Inspection Tour3In Lima4The Third Congress5The Oil Workers6Failed EmancipationPart 5 On the Fronts of the Cold Peace13 Rearmament1The People 's Party2UGOCM3Back on the Campaign Trail4Aftermath of Defeat5The Succession6The Cold Peace14 Mission Completed1Anti-communist Liberalism2Liberal Internationalism3In Decline4The CTAL Dies in Bucharest5The CTAL Completed Its Historic Mission15 The Road to 19681PPS2Against the Current3On the Final Campaign Trail4Schism in the Party51968Epilogue: Testament and TestimoniesBibliography and Works CitedIndexIllustrations

“Spenser provides a highly readable portrait of Lombardo Toledano, deftly navigating the complexities of Mexican domestic politics and global ideological crosscurrents. She is remarkably balanced, giving us insights into her subjects worldview while not hesitating to present him in a critical light. [...] In Combat offers a clear and coherent view of a figure who stood at the heart of Mexicos twentieth century.”—Tony Wood, Hispanic American Historical Review“Few figures loom larger in the history of twentieth-century Mexico – save perhaps presidents and revolutionary fighters – than labor leader Vicente Lombardo Toledano [...] In a field crowded with hagiographic biographies, there is no one better suited to an objective accounting of the life of Lombardo Toledano than Spenser.”—Christy Thornton, The Americas“There is no doubt that Spenser has written a tome that will be cited for years to come.”—Nathan Ellstrand, H-Net Reviews“Daniela Spenser deconstructs Lombardo Toledano’s hagiography without representing him as a historical villain.”—Colby Ristow, Latin American Research Review