Description
Book SynopsisA social history of the earthquake-tsunami that struck Lima in October 1746, looking at how people in and beyond Lima understood and reacted to the natural disaster.
Trade Review“While Walker’s description and analysis of the earthquake-tsunami of 1746 and the subsequent efforts to reconstruct Lima present a fascinating story, his book is particularly important for its careful delineation of the capital’s society and the reforming efforts of Viceroy Manso de Velasco. . . .
Shaky Colonialism is an excellent study that every student of eighteenth-century Spanish America and the history of Peru should read.” - Mark A. Burkholder,
Journal of Latin American Studies“
Shaky Colonialism is a fascinating and forcefully argued book that fills a major gap in the scholarly literature on the early Bourbon period in the viceroyalty of Peru. By focusing on the natural disaster of 1746, Walker presents a rich mosaic of race, ethnicity, gender, Baroque piety and the beginnings of Enlightenment-inspired Bourbon regalism in a major urban centre during this largely under-studied period.” - Kenneth J. Andrien,
Social History“
Shaky Colonialism is a superior work of scholarship. Charles F. Walker uses a dramatic incident and its aftermath to present a very intelligent analysis of baroque colonialism and its halting transformation into the Enlightenment-inspired absolutism of the Bourbons. He balances human drama and color to pull the reader into a very serious analysis of colonial society.”—
Peter Guardino, author of
The Time of Liberty: Popular Political Culture in Oaxaca, 1750–1850“As Charles F. Walker shows in this fascinating book, the great earthquake that destroyed Lima in 1746 ruptured along social as well as geological fault lines, exposing profound contradictions between baroque piety, Bourbon Reform, and indigenous identity. Moreover, the extraordinary social aftershocks, ranging from revelation to rebellion, further fragmented Limeño society, leaving fissures that are still visible in the modern megalopolis.”—
Mike Davis, author of
Planet of Slums“Charles F. Walker explores the fault lines of colonial society through a painstaking archival study of the controversies that followed the 1746 earthquake-tsunami that nearly wiped out Lima. The analysis of the city’s reconstruction is masterful and multifaceted; it gives a vivid sense of popular and elite understandings of race, gender, religion, and urban space. The book is also an imaginative analysis of how the baroque composite monarchy that was the Spanish empire worked: the absolutist policies of the Enlightenment and the Bourbon Reforms consistently gave way to resistance and negotiation.
Shaky Colonialism breaks new ground.”—
Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, author of
Puritan Conquistadors: Iberianizing the Atlantic, 1550–1700“The devastating Lima earthquake of 1746 set off huge social and political shock waves in all directions. Charles F. Walker’s beautifully written analysis of ‘great balls of fire’ and wandering nuns, enlightened reformers, and real and imaginary rebels shows a colonial city deeply at odds with itself—well before the notorious crises of the late eighteenth century.”—
Kathryn Burns, author of
Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco, Peru“The book draws on extensive archival research and carefully integrates insights from secondary literature on everything from Andean utopias to sumptuary laws to ecclesiastical reform. It is an important contribution to the growing scholarly literature on the Lima earthquake. . . . This is a lovely work of compelling insights and convincing synthesis.” -- Mark Alan Healy * Hispanic American Historical Review *
“
Shaky Colonialism is a fascinating and forcefully argued book that fills a major gap in the scholarly literature on the early Bourbon period in the viceroyalty of Peru. By focusing on the natural disaster of 1746, Walker presents a rich mosaic of race, ethnicity, gender, Baroque piety and the beginnings of Enlightenment-inspired Bourbon regalism in a major urban centre during this largely under-studied period.” -- Kenneth J. Andrien * Social History *
“While Walker’s description and analysis of the earthquake-tsunami of 1746 and the subsequent efforts to reconstruct Lima present a fascinating story, his book is particularly important for its careful delineation of the capital’s society and the reforming efforts of Viceroy Manso de Velasco. . . .
Shaky Colonialism is an excellent study that every student of eighteenth-century Spanish America and the history of Peru should read.” -- Mark A. Burkholder * Journal of Latin American Studies *
Table of ContentsTables ix
Acknowledgments xi
1. Earthquakes, Tsunamies, Absolutism, and Lima 1
2. Balls of Fire: Premonitions and the Destruction of Lima 21
3. The City of Kings: Before and After 52
4. Stabilizing the Unstable and Ordering the Disorderly 74
5. Contending Notions of Lima: Obstacles to Urban Reform in the Aftermath 90
6. Licentious Friars, Wandering Nuns, and Tangled
Censos: A Shakeup of the Church 106
7. Controlling Women's Bodies and Placating God's Wrath: Moral Reform 131
8. "All These Indians and Black People Bear Us No Good Will": The Lima and Huarochirí Rebellions of 1750 156
Epilogue: Aftershocks and Echoes 186
Notes 193
Bibliography 223
Index 251
