Description
Book SynopsisThe Companion to Latin American History collects the work of leading experts in the field to create a single-source overview of the diverse history and current trends in the study of Latin America.
Trade Review"For many readers, this work will prove helpful in engendering a broader understanding of the layers, complexities, and array of approaches in studies of Latin America. Summing Up: Highly recommended." (
CHOICE, February 2009)
"Blackwell is to be congratulated on offering a comprehensive review drawing together the disparate threads of the history of the many nations which make up the southern half of the American continent … .For the undergraduate student of the general reader seeking a handy overview to the history of the region the present volume provides an excellent introduction." (Reference Reviews, Issue 7 2008)
"The 30 scholars who contributed these 28 essays covering prehistoric times to the present represent the fields of anthropology, archaeology, ethnography, gender studies, history, political science, and Spanish. They furnish readers with an excellent addition to the body of works exploring Latin America. Entries are ordered logically and pragmatically and lend structure to a comprehensive approach to the study of Latin America. This work treats Brazil as a distinctive entity and explores women, gender, family, and modern environmental history. The editor addresses the appropriateness of the descriptor "Latin America." The inclusion of these elements is timely, lending to the completeness of coverage. The maps are important to the few entries that include them and provide the reader with graphical data. However, the small size and indiscernible formatting of the maps undermines their potential usefulness. Because of the scholarly tone and depth of information provided in each entry, readers who already have a foundational knowledge of the region will extract the greatest benefit. Nevertheless, for many readers, this work will prove helpful in engendering a broader understanding of the layers, complexities, and array of approaches in studies of Latin America. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." (A. G. Garza, California State University, Stanislaus, Choice, February 2008)
"This volume is an accessible and welcome contribution to the general field of Latin American Studies. Overall, the volume is excellent with just the right mix of generalization and particularity. This volume is smartly structured, well informed, and written by top scholars in the field." (The Americas: Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, April 2007)
Table of ContentsList of Figures, Tables, and Maps vii
Notes on Contributors viii
Introduction 1
Thomas H. Holloway
1 Early Population Flows in the Western Hemisphere 10
Tom D. Dillehay
2 Mesoamerica 28
John Monaghan and Andrew R. Wyatt
3 Tradition and Change in the Central Andes 42
Jeffrey Quilter
4 Portuguese and Spaniards in the Age of European Expansion 58
William D. Phillips, Jr. and Carla Rahn Phillips
5 Exploration and Conquest 73
Patricia Seed
6 Colonial Brazil (1500–1822) 89
Hal Langfur
7 Institutions of the Spanish American Empire in the Hapsburg Era 106
Susan Elizabeth Ramírez
8 Indigenous Peoples in Colonial Spanish American Society 124
Kevin Terraciano
9 Slavery in the Americas 146
Franklin W. Knight
10 Religion, Society, and Culture in the Colonial Era 162
Rachel Sarah O’Toole
11 Imperial Rivalries and Reforms 178
John Fisher
12 The Process of Spanish American Independence 195
Jaime E. Rodríguez O.
13 New Nations and New Citizens: Political Culture in Nineteenth-century Mexico, Peru, and Argentina 215
Sarah C. Chambers
14 Imperial Brazil (1822–89) 230
Judy Bieber
15 Abolition and Afro-Latin Americans 247
Aline Helg
16 Land, Labor, Production, and Trade: Nineteenth-century Economic and Social Patterns 264
Aldo A. Lauria-Santiago
17 Modernization and Industrialization 285
Colin M. Lewis
18 Practical Sovereignty: The Caribbean Region and the Rise of US Empire 307
Mary A. Renda
19 The Mexican Revolution 330
Adrian A. Bantjes
20 Populism and Developmentalism 347
Joel Wolfe
21 The Cuban Revolution 365
Luis Martínez-Fernández
22 The National Security State 386
David R. Mares
23 Central America in Upheaval 406
Julie A. Charlip
24 Culture and Society: Latin America since 1900 424
Robert McKee Irwin
25 Environmental History of Modern Latin America 443
Lise Sedrez
26 Women, Gender, and Family in Latin America, 1820–2000 461
Nara Milanich
27 Identity, Ethnicity, and “Race” 480
Peter Wade
28 Social and Economic Impact of Neoliberalism 494
Duncan Green
Index 512
