Latin America: A Social History of the Colonial Period

by Jonathan C. Brown

This comprehensive narrative covers Latin America's pre-Colombian and colonial periods, including its civil war and struggle for independence. Brown's clear, lively prose stresses social history (as opposed to political history). The textbook presents Latin American history from the "bottom up,"emphasizing the stories of indigenous peoples, African slaves, and mixed-race workers and peasants. According to Brown, colonialism was a process of accommodation and conflict between numerous ethnic groups and the European settlers who took control of the land and the people. The cultural diversity and racial mixture unique to the colonial experience find ample expression in illustrations, tables, charts, and up-to-date bibliographies, as well as in the many historical documents that depict the contributions of ordinary people.

Genres: History

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

From the University of Texas at Austin Department of History:

Jonathan C. Brown has published four single-authored books: A Socioeconomic History of Argentina, 1776-1860 (1979); Oil and Revolution in Mexico (1993), Latin America: A Social History of the Colonial Period (2nd ed., 2005), and A Brief History of Argentina (2nd ed., 2009). Two of these books have been translated and published in Latin America. His first book on Argentina, published by Cambridge University Press, won the Bolton Prize. Brown also edited a collection of essays on workers and populism in Latin America and co-edited books on the Mexican oil industry and on Argentine social history.

Reviews

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure why this text isn't more popular. Brown is a wonderful historian, making history fascinating.

[Jayden gonzalez]

class struggle b4 the socialization of labor seems like it kinda sucked