The Emergence of Latin America in the Nineteenth Century

by David Bushnell, Neill Macaulay

Fully revised and updated, this unique single-volume survey provides complete and even more up-to-date coverage of the entire region during the critical era that saw the formation and consolidation of its distinctive national institutions, laying the groundwork for contemporary Latin America. Covering all the major countries, the new edition features a new treatment of Peru based on important recent research, important new material on elections in imperial Brazil and the Mexican economy in 1810-55, and a fully updated bibliography. The authors focus on the preliminary experiments in nation-building throughout Latin America and explore the conscious--if perhaps misguided--attempts by most leaders to adopt a liberal mode of both socioeconomic and political development. No pat answers are provided, but the nagging questions of Latin American "instability" and "underdevelopment" are examined, and the data and factors that come into play are presented and explained.

Genres: History

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 1988

About the author

Bushnell worked as a professor and academic at the University of Delaware and the University of Florida. He taught at the University of Florida from 1963 until his retirement in 1991. He also served as the editor-in-chief of the Hispanic American Historical Review from 1986 to 1991. In 1975 he served as chair of the Conference on Latin American History, the professional organization of Latin American historians affiliated with the American Historical Association.

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fine overview of Latin America's "short" 19th century from, say, 1820 up to 1880 or thereabouts, with some fin de siecle afterglow. The focus here is regional, of course, but is broken up nicely into specific areas based both on timeframe and theme, for example, the rise of liberalism in all its varieties around the region mid-century. Islander lovers will find the bits on the Caribbean wanting, but the authors state from the outset that with the exception of Cuba, the political experience was very different there in tropicalia.
Economics preponderates, too, but never gets boring, because the authors fuse it nicely with political events, unlike many histories. Maybe not a perfect place to start an exploration of the region, but good backup for country studies since it's hard to treat the states here in a vacuum from their neighbors.

[Monzenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

High four stars. A good account of Latin America in the nineteenth century (book title can't be more straightforward). The overarching theme is of course independence from colonial powers and the first few decades of attempting to build their own governments. The clash between liberal dreams and conservative / strongman / caudillo style tendencies was quite evident. A bit disappointed that the last chapter strayed a bit away from the rest of the century - interesting info but it wasn't necessary to devote a chapter to it in my opinion, a summary set of paragraphs would have sufficed. Still overall, the account was good to read.

[Umar Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid academic reader on Latin American history. My only complaint is that some areas got really shortchanged and kinda glossed over.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good, readable overview of Latin America in this time period, covering the big trends in economics and politics as well as events in individual countries.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense but good
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