This volume, the first to appear in a projected three-volume series, was published during the Columbus Quincentenary. The first volume will extend to 1760, and the third will cover the twentieth century; both are scheduled to appear in 1994. Although the text is in German, the editors are authorities from the Netherlands and Britain and the contributors include German, Dutch, Spanish, and British historians. In this respect, the book recalls another noteworthy publication, the Cambridge History of Latin America, which first appeared in the 1980s. The present volume, however, appears far more compact. It is not a collection of independent studies but rather an integrated whole, which doubtless owes much to the editors’ approach to Latin American history.
They have divided the material into two sections, the periods before and after 1830. The first section covers the preconditions for independence and the wars of independence, and the second deals with “rebuilding and modernization.” In two long chapters, John Fisher examines broad topics in Latin American society and chief aspects of public life in the colonies and newly independent states, such as the legal system, the economy, and international relations. His presentation is complemented by Jan Lechner’s essay on culture. Other authors describe developments in individual regions—the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, Brazil, and so on. Hans Joachim König, Gert Oostindie, and Raymond Buve deal with fundamental aspects of communities that, at the turn of the nineteenth century, were being transformed from colonial creole societies into the national communities of modern states.
One advantage of the present volume is that its authors have avoided the pitfall that has tripped many Latin American historians, of devoting an unreasonable amount of space to the military aspect of the wars of independence. Although the space devoted to political, economic, military, and other spheres is by no means uniform in each of the chapters, the reader is rewarded with abundant useful information on all major aspects.
The publication is conceived as a textbook for university students and readers interested in a more profound consideration of Latin American history. In this respect it contains a single notable flaw: the bibliography is merely a list of books and articles. What is required here is a bibliographical essay to guide the reader through the vast array of titles—far too many for any one person to search out and look at. But on the whole, the volume is of great significance and will surely stand for many years to come as one of the indispensable reference works on Latin American history.
