Peter Blanchard's new book is an ambitious effort to examine the antecedents of May 25, 1810. The author is an established historian of colonial Río de la Plata with broad archival experience. His ambition is made clear by the geographic breadth of his research. In a field focused on the viceregal capital city, Blanchard's decision to examine the viceroyalty's three largest cities, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Córdoba, is a welcome expansion in scale and perspective. Every specialist will also appreciate the rich historical detail that propels his narrative of late colonial social and political history. While these rewards are substantial, he fails in his ambition to add significantly to our understanding of the origins of independence in the Río de la Plata.
Blanchard's original intention was to examine the development of elite disaffection with Spanish rule in the decades prior to the Spanish political crises of 1808. Having found little...
