This bicentennial offering, made up of documentary excerpts and other illustrative readings plus a series of introductory “essays,” will prove unquestionably useful as a reference and introduction to its topic even though the focus is not perhaps what one would first expect. Professor Rodríguez speaks in avowedly Boltonian terms of one “Greater American Revolution” running from 1775 to 1825, but he devotes surprisingly little space to the direct consideration of the Anglo-American rebellion as providing a model and inspiration for the later movement of the Latin American colonies. Over a third of the text concerns relations between the Spanish government and the Anglo-Americans during their struggle, with somewhat more on diplomacy than on Spain’s military contribution. Another section sets forth “Impresiones hispánicas sobre la Revolución y los Estados Unidos” as reflected in Miranda’s journal and, mainly, newspapers and larger works published at Madrid. Still another combines an excerpt from Juan Pablo Viscardo with three proposals of prominent peninsular Spaniards for some sort of political devolution in Spanish America. The title of this section—“Documentos claves en la gesta emancipadora de Hispanoamérica”—suggests the importance Rodríguez attributes to the proposals in question. Indeed he sees them as manifestations of a broad federalist” tendency at work in the Spanish empire that was in some measure a response to the American Revolution and could also be seen in the establishment of libre comercio, for example.
Rodríguez’ interpretation of Bourbon policies in the late colonial period does not seem wholly convincing; at best he uses a somewhat amorphous definition of federalism. Also, as one parochially more interested in Nariño than in Covarrubias and in the Mercurio Peruano than the Gaceta de Madrid (even granting the latter circulated overseas), I would personally have liked to see greater attention given to the impact of the U.S. example on the Spanish Americans themselves. However, in the latter respect the one fair criticism that could be made is that the title appears to promise a more balanced treatment than the book delivers. Certainly a volume with a largely peninsular perspective still satisfies a valid need.
