The document summarizes two books: The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela about the Mexican Revolution, and The Alienist by Caleb Carr set in 1890s New York City. The Underdogs follows Demetrio Macias, a character who joins the rebel forces but ultimately loses sight of why he's fighting. The Alienist features Dr. Laszlo Kreizler assembling a team to hunt a serial killer with the help of police captain Theodore Roosevelt. Both books provide historical context and detail of their respective settings.

1. The Underdogs &The Alienist By: Blake Smedley

2. The Underdogs Author Mariano Azuela was a Mexican who was drafted into the Federale army, but he deserted it. He was a medical student, and was a medic when he served. He is known best for his writings, like The Underdogs, that is said to be the best portrayal of the Mexican revolution. He later was forced to immigrate to El Paso, Texas, where he lived for several years before going to areas near Mexico City.

3. Underdog Characters The main character is Demetrio Macias. He joins the rebel forces and eventually becomes a general in Pancho Villa’s Army. He ultimately realizes he doesn’t even know why he is fighting, and that he just knows he has to keep fighting. He cares more for tequila and the company of women, as well as a good fight more than anything else. Once home to his wife after 2+ years of fighting he leaves her again to fight and he dies soon after.

4. Underdogs Themes Azuela spends a good amount of time talking about the landscape. He talks of how beautiful it is, yet at the same time, extremely treacherous, and will easily kill you if you don’t respect it. This land is what Demetrio thought he was originally fighting for, but he later understands that a man with a gun and bullets doesn’t care what side he is on, he just wants to fight. The people of the towns follow the same progressive thoughts, and eventually do not care for the men on either side.

5. The Alienist Author Caleb Carr is a writer that was born in 1955. He attended Kenyon College and New York University. He earned a B.A. in military and diplomatic history. He currently lives in upstate New York on a farm estate called Misery Mountain. He lives in the town of Berlin New York.

6. The Alienist Characters The book is set in New York during some of the harshest times due to the rapid rate of growth which makes it a daily struggle to keep it under control. Lazlo Kreizler is the alienist of the story, or what we refer to today as a psychiatrist. He is assigned by police captain and future president Roosevelt to start his own team to operate outside the police station to find a serial killer. A team of oddly assorted people are assembled, and the whole story is told in retrospect by a reporter named John Moore.

7. The Alienist Themes The book has a very large amount of history in it, and that was the aim of Carr since that is his area of expertise. The book was very well put together, and kept the readers attention with the plot, while teaching the reader numerous things about the history of New York. Carr also did a fantastic job of researching what psychology was known at the time, so that Kreizler wasn’t using methods outside his realm to plot the thought of the criminal in order to finally catch him.