Description
Book SynopsisExplores the mid-nineteenth-century rise of mass electoral democracy in the southwestern region of Colombia, a country many assume has never had a meaningful democracy of any sort. This book examines the political activism of three distinct social and racial groups: Afro-Colombians, Indians, and white peasant migrants.
Trade Review“
Contentious Republicans is a lucid, well-researched, and engagingly written account that will force a rethinking of popular political thought and practice and its impact on national politics in Colombia.”—Mary Roldán, author of
Blood and Fire: La Violencia
in Antioquia Colombia, 1946–1953“Contentious Republicans is the most intelligent and persuasive application of the insights of ‘subaltern studies’ I have encountered in the field of Latin American studies. James E. Sanders shows in engaging detail how different subaltern groups turned the republican politics of newly independent Colombia into an arena of struggle. The quality and sheer quantity of Sander’s evidence is impressive; much of it is drawn from regional and national archives largely untapped for the purpose of writing social and cultural history.”—Charles Bergquist, author of
Labor and the Course of American Democracy: U.S. History in Latin American PerspectiveTable of ContentsAcknowledgments viii
1 Introduction: A Social History of Politics 1
2 “We the Undersigned, Citizens of the State”: Three Forms of Popular Republicanism 18
3 A New Politics: The Emergence of Republican Bargaining, 1848-1853 58
4 Fragmented Hegemony: The Limits of Elite Power, 1853-1863 100
5 The Triumph of Democracy, 1863-1876
125
6 Failure of Discipline: The Suppression of Popular Politics, 1875-1886 153
7 Conclusion: Popular Republicans’ Legacies 184
Notes 199
Abbreviations 237
Bibliography 239
Index 253
