America latina en la edad moderna: Una Historia de la América española y el Brasil coloniales

by James Lockhart, Stuart B. Schwartz

Este libro contiene una historia general de América Latina en el periodo que va de la conquista europea a la independencia de las colonias hispanoamericanas y del Brasil portugués, suministrando al tiempo una amplia introducción a los estudiantes universitarios del tema y una apretada síntesis para lectores especializados. La intención de los autores ha sido proporcionar una visión de la temprana América Latina entendida como una unidad, con un centro y unas periferias, caracterizándose sus partes por diversas variantes de una misma evolución. Integrando ampliamente la más reciente y la más clásica bibliografía histórica, el libro contiene una visión de conjunto con especial atención a los fenómenos legales, institucionales y políticos, sin olvidar los contextos sociales, económicos y culturales.

440 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 1992

About the author

Academic and historian specialising in colonial Latin America and Nahuatl sources

Reviews

[Daniel Rothwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

In that the book seeks to describe historical processes, it is quite useful still, but in general I'd suspect that many claims in the book will be outdated in comparison with more recent scholarship. If you want a basic model of the social changes and processes, and a well furnished conception of each region of latin america as having underwent some amount of a transformation from periphery - semi-periphery - core, then this book works. By treating the entirety of lat. am. in these terms, a good understanding of their shared history is created. Particularly in elements such as social hierarcyh and race, religion, economic processes, criollos (a retroactive term which is recognised within the book) and peninsulars etc. I'd recommend having a basic understanding of the initial conquests of the central regions (Peru, Mexico) beforehand, non-central regions will get their settlement discussed in the book properly, but these two stand out as being more famous "stories" and are brushed past. Likewise, the wars of independence are not treated except through the core-periphery model. The rebellions of the 1810s begin in a periphery region (Northern Mexico, Venezuela, Haiti) and would sweep towards the core regions. Bolívar, Hidalgo, Morelos and the like do not fit in within the frame of the work.