Re-imagining Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1780–1870

Re-imagining Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean is part of a multivolume project that seeks to understand how democracy was conceived, adapted, and employed during the long Age of Revolution. This is the third volume in the series, focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean, after previous books on the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The stated intent is not so much to explore the practices of democracy but to investigate the use of the word itself, why its meaning changed over time, and what purpose the word served for political actors. Instead of debating what democracy really was, the contributors mostly focus on what historical actors thought it meant or should mean. After two general introductions, the volume explores the use of the word democracy, and its context, in eight thematic chapters (on the Iberian colonial legacy, political culture in the British and French Caribbean, the independence...