This collection, which grows out of the Institute of Latin American Studies’ annual workshop on nineteenth-century history, is a welcome addition to the growing body of literature on the spoken and printed word in Latin America. Its introduction and seven essays range in time from the 1790s through the second decade of the twentieth century, although geographic and thematic coverage is limited. Iván Jaksić’s useful introduction to the volume emphasizes recurrent themes and insights in the context of a broader historiography of the press and oratory that—especially the debates over Habermas’s concept of the public sphere—has significantly influenced many of the subsequent essays.
Rebecca Earle’s analysis of the role of print media during the independence era concludes that regional differences in literacy, the content of printed material, and the size of the print industry contributed to significant variations in how the public sphere developed before, during, and after independence. Carmen...
