Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2017 -

In this richly detailed study, distinguished historian Karasch (emer., Oakland Univ.) considers the "heart" of Brazil, the geographic center of the country, which lies principally in the present-day states of Goias and Tocantins. Employing the extraordinary volume of data she has amassed during the course of her career, Karasch begins her analysis of the region with the colonial period and continues into the 19th century, considering, in turn, its geographical features and Indigenous populations, the ramifications of slavery (of indigenes and blacks), the mission system, and the imposition (never completely successful) of centralized authority from Portugal and, after independence, Rio de Janeiro. So difficult was this task that not even when the author began her research in Goias in the 1970s, and notwithstanding the contemporaneous raising of the new capital city of Brasilia within the region, could the Brazilian government claim to have completely pacified all of the Indian groups. This solid work is enriched with useful maps, illustrations of extant ethnographic materials, reproductions from important travelers' accounts, and appendixes of censuses that address issues of racial diversity in the region. This singular accomplishment deserves to be in every collection of Braziliana.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

Mary Ann Mahony has adeptly translated one of the best monographic histories of slaves for the vast sugar lands of Brazil. There, abolition occurred with the "Golden Law" in 1888, but Fraga (Univ. Federal da Bahia, Brazil) makes it clear this is a history of slavery until 1910. Slaves rarely documented themselves; few other historians have pieced together such vivid stories of slaves at work or in struggle. Readers would find an intriguing juxtaposition of micro- and macrohistory, or political history and "history-from-below," by reading Emilia Viotti da Costa's essay in editor Leslie Bethell's Brazil: Empire and Republic (1989), or Boris Fausto's A Concise History of Brazil (CH, Apr'15, 52-4367). Mahony makes wise choices in translation because she knows this period and its archives as well as Fraga. Despite its many merits, the book gives too scant attention to race and gender, even though Fraga's sources demonstrate yet again that oppression hinged on complex, regionally specific, and chameleonic notions of white male supremacy. This book extends Fraga's 2004 dissertation and is a must read for specialists of slavery, emancipation, or Brazil, and, if contextualized, should be compelling to undergraduates and general readers as well.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

The subtitle better defines the volume topic, as most readers think of the term "history" as a linear progression of events and individuals, while anthropologist Urton (Harvard) sees history in the French Annales tradition, where longue duree patterns are sought. Having spent the last 25 years on this research, Urton is the world's foremost expert on the meaning and utilization of Inca knotted cords (khipus), whose structure has so far tantalized experts in the absence of a "Rosetta stone." This volume goes a long way toward explaining and interpreting Inca khipus as encoded political, social, ritual, and economic structures, and as such, is essential reading not only for all Peruvianists and students of ancient civilizations, but also, because of the book's code-breaking arguments related to binary coding, hierarchy, and markedness, for scholars in those areas as well. Urton has integrated and updated six previous articles as supporting chapters, making this volume a kind of magnum opus. His dense arguments are supported by notes, an inventory of 923 known khipus, 84 figures and photos, and 29 khipu interpretation tables.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

El Salvador is perhaps best known for a 1932 rural uprising that led to a bloody massacre of more than 10,000 Indigenous peoples, and a protracted 1980-92 civil war that ultimately failed to bring the leftist FMLN to power through armed struggle. Scholars have produced a fairly robust literature on both episodes, but until now have paid little attention to the 50 years that separated the two events. Yet, they have always known that the 1980s guerrilla insurgency did not emerge out of a vacuum but was an expression of a highly organized, mobilized, and conscientious population. Chavez (history, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago) performs an important task in filling that gap in the literature. Employing Gramsci's notions of peasant intellectuals, he traces the ideas of democracy and revolution that rural and urban activists articulated during the 1960s and 1970s. The author provides a model for understanding the intersection of "old" and "new" Lefts in building a powerful revolutionary movement that scholars elsewhere will want to emulate. This is a key work for understanding the origins and evolution of one of Latin America's best-organized social movements.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

This study on memory in El Salvador is exceptional for a number of reasons. Though focused on societal memory, it also works as an introduction to El Salvador's civil war. Even readers who recall specific, notorious incidents of this 12-year conflict, which resulted in 75,000 civilian deaths, may not know the war's larger history. Ching (history, Furman Univ.) presents the specifics of how the war began, the precise relationship of the civilian elite to the military, and the nature of the FMLN as a coalition of distinct guerrilla organizations. Equally important, the author examines public memory in a postwar Latin American nation, an increasingly important topic that historians too often convey in overly theoretical, unproductive writing. Ching's clear prose offers observations about public narratives that serve as a primer for understanding memory studies. Ching surveyed the extensive first-person literature on the war and identifies four groups that present common narratives: members of the elite, military commanders, guerrilla leaders, and the ordinary people who fought in the war. The insights offered by these accounts, the parallels between the narratives of elites and guerrillas, and the tension between the elite and military perspectives are illuminating. An excellent study, laudable for its lucidity and for presenting an important history to a broader reading audience.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

Since publishing The Brazil Reader in 1999 (CH, Nov'99, 37-1720), Duke's country readers series has staked a claim as the most exciting resource for teaching and, more broadly, as an immersive experience in Latin American national histories, claiming the place previously held by the "Cambridge Histories of Latin America." The Duke series is part of the larger effort to make primary sources, whether full texts or selections, available in translation to a broad readership. The scope and ambition of the project, which now includes 12 readers on individual Latin American countries, two on individual cities, and several volumes on countries outside of Latin America, sets the country readers apart from similar efforts. In place of the usual chronological arrangement, the editors offer an exciting and novel approach by organizing the volume thematically: human geography, religion, city and country, lived inequalities, violence, economic change and continuity, and transnational Colombia. Within these seven categories, the roughly 100 translated texts and examples of visual culture present an intoxicating survey of Colombian history, culture, thought, and experience. Including a wide range of photographs and reproductions of works of art, this remarkable and exciting collection is an indispensable work for all libraries, all scholars of Colombia, Latin Americanists of all sorts, and any interested reader.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

This latest book by historian Hamnett (emer., Univ. of Essex, UK) draws upon his decades of research and writing about Spain's mainland American empire and its demise in the early 19 century to produce a comparative analysis of Portugal and Brazil. Although Madrid and Lisbon were the imperial centers of political power, neither could enforce consistent, effective control. Both suffered from constraints of time and distance and relied on negotiation between royal representatives and local oligarchs. Though the idea of "one sole nation" attracted policy makers in the metropolitan capitals from roughly 1770, it ultimately failed. Spain's absolutist ministers proved unable to manage wartime debt between 1795 and 1808. The constitutional experiment, 1810-14, failed to provide a workable political process, satisfactory representation for the American realms, or unrestricted commerce. Portugal's unwillingness to offer acceptable political status for Brazil similarly resulted in what the author terms the "disaggregation" of empire. Well-grounded in primary and secondary sources, Hamnett's book gives readers a thoughtful, sometimes revisionist comparative analysis. It complements Anthony McFarlane's War and Independence in Spanish America (CH, Apr'14, 51-4616) as a mandatory purchase for all college and university libraries.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was the signal event of the early 16th century, and thereby fueled the European imagination for centuries. In 1111 CE, Chichimeca migrations out of northern Mesoamerica culminated in the arrival of the Mexica, Tlaxcalteca, Matlatzinca, and a host of other peoples in and about the Basin of Mexico. By the early 13th century, the group most closely identified with the Aztec established itself on a rocky isle in Lake Texcoco. This early settlement formed the basis for the stunning future metropolis and capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Editors Nichols (Dartmouth) and Rodriguez-Alegria (Texas) have succeeded in bringing together the foremost authorities and scholarship currently available on Aztec civilization. This comprehensive treatment, and the substantive nature of the 49 contributions, will stand the test of time, particularly in that it spans seven pivotal themes, including archaeology, historical change, landscapes, economic and social relations, provinces, ritual, belief, religion, and the Aztecs after the Conquest. The impressive range and depth of topics addressed is without parallel in Aztec studies, and clearly speaks to how far this critical area of inquiry has advanced in recent years.Summing Up: Essential. All academic levels/libraries.