Hilda Sabato's new book is a great experiment in interpreting the meaning and establishment of republicanism in Latin America between 1820 and 1870. Republics of the New World is written in a light style but demonstrates very profound and rigorous thinking. The author uses few endnotes but supports her assertions with a vast and diverse bibliography of works—published in all the countries that she refers to, in addition to countries beyond the book's geographical focus.
Even though she misses some recent and more regional studies, Republics of the New World is a great effort of synthesis; it also offers a very suggestive interpretation that tries to place the construction of the nation-state in Latin America within a more global narrative since republican regimes were based on the concept of popular sovereignty, a new political foundation for a historical process that included countries such as England, revolutionary France, and North America....
