SUP Latin America

SUP Latin America http://www.sup.org/rss/latinamerica.xml The latest titles from Stanford University Press en-us Copyright 2008 Stanford University Press webmaster@www.sup.org (Webmaster) Social Forces and States: Poverty and Distributional Outcomes in South Korea, Chile, and Mexico Social Forces and States: Poverty and Distributional Outcomes in South Korea, Chile, and Mexico Judith A. Teichman "Teichman treats the known economic and political trajectories of Chile, Mexico, and South Korea in a truly original way and provides a compelling explanation of their paths to widely different levels of poverty and inequality. This is a must read for scholars interested in the political economy of development."—Evelyne Huber, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "South Korea, Chile, and Mexico form an instructive triangle around which the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality are investigated. In emphasizing the role of key social actors in various historical struggles, Teichman employs a novel analytical lens to understand important human development outcomes."—Wendy Hunter, The University of Texas at Austin <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21479">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> With the failure of market reform to generate sustained growth in many countries of the Global South, poverty reduction has become an urgent moral and political issue in the last several decades. In practice, considerable research shows that high levels of inequality are likely to produce high levels of criminal and political violence. On the road to development, states cannot but grapple with the challenges posed by poverty and wealth distribution. Social Forces and States explains the reasons behind distinct distributional and poverty outcomes in three countries: South Korea, Chile, and Mexico. South Korea has successfully reduced poverty and has kept inequality low. Chile has reduced poverty but inequality remains high. Mexico has confronted higher levels of poverty and high inequality than either of the other countries. Judith Teichman takes a comparative historical approach, focusing upon the impact of the interaction between social forces and states. Distinct from approaches that explain social well-being through a comparative examination of social welfare regimes, this book probes more deeply, incorporating a careful consideration of how historical contexts and political struggles shaped very different development trajectories, welfare arrangements, and social possibilities. Judith A. Teichman is Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. Most recently, she is co-author of Social Democracy in the Global Periphery: Origins, Challenges, Prospects (2007). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21479 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21479 "We Are Now the True Spaniards": Sovereignty, Revolution, Independence, and the Emergence of the Federal Republic of Mexico, 1808–1824 "We Are Now the True Spaniards": Sovereignty, Revolution, Independence, and the Emergence of the Federal Republic of Mexico, 1808–1824 Jaime E. Rodríguez O. "This book will truly constitute a landmark study in the historiography of Mexico. Its revisionist position will change our view of Spain and the process of independence in its trans-Atlantic realms. Rodríguez shifts the entire independence process in Mexico back in time to the 1808–1812 period, exiles structuralist inevitability, and assumes open fields of political information and decision-making."—Eric Van Young, University of California, San Diego "Rodríguez, the living soul of the revisionist revolution in the study of Latin American independence, demonstrates that the story of Mexican independence is the story of a transatlantic political revolution that, as a byproduct, produced separation between Mexico and Spain. The portrayal of independence as a transformative process not necessarily directed against a 'motherland' is sure to to inspire also historians of other countries that experienced similar revolutions, such as the USA."—Tamar Herzog, Stanford University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20778">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This book is a radical reinterpretation of the process that led to Mexican independence in 1821—one that emphasizes Mexico's continuity with Spanish political culture. During its final decades under Spanish rule, New Spain was the most populous, richest, and most developed part of the worldwide Spanish Monarchy, and most novohispanos (people of New Spain) believed that their religious, social, economic, and political ties to the Monarchy made union preferable to separation. Neither the American nor the French Revolution convinced the novohispanos to sever ties with the Spanish Monarchy; nor did the Hidalgo Revolt of September 1810 and subsequent insurgencies cause Mexican independence. It was Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 that led to the Hispanic Constitution of 1812. When the government in Spain rejected those new constituted arrangements, Mexico declared independence. The Mexican Constitution of 1824 affirms both the new state's independence and its continuance of Spanish political culture. Jaime E. Rodríguez O. is Research Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Irvine, where he was Director of Latin American Studies and Dean of Graduate Studies and Research. He was the founder and editor of the journal Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos and has published numerous works in English and in Spanish. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20778 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20778 In the Wake of War: Democratization and Internal Armed Conflict in Latin America In the Wake of War: Democratization and Internal Armed Conflict in Latin America Edited by Cynthia J. Arnson "This book is invaluable and there is a need for it. It is important to try to assess the longer-term legacy of civil war in Latin America."—Cynthia McClintock, George Washington University "The authors pull together rich and detailed insights from the most remote corners of Latin America, which are complemented by comparative analyses and regional perspectives."—David Shirk, University of San Diego <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21413">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> In the Wake of War assesses the consequences of civil war for democratization in Latin America, focusing on questions of state capacity. Contributors focus on seven countries—Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru—where state weakness fostered conflict and the task of state reconstruction presents multiple challenges. In addition to case studies, the book explores cross-cutting themes including the role of the international community in supporting peace, the explosion of post-war criminal and social violence, and the value of truth and historical clarification. This book completes a fifteen-year project, "Program on Comparative Peace Processes in Latin America," which also led to the 1999 publication of the book Comparative Peace Processes in Latin America. Cynthia J. Arnson is director of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21413 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21413 Violence, Coercion, and State-Making in Twentieth-Century Mexico: The Other Half of the Centaur Violence, Coercion, and State-Making in Twentieth-Century Mexico: The Other Half of the Centaur Edited by Wil G. Pansters "Through nuanced, cross-disciplinary perspectives on violence, this volume considerably advances our understanding of Mexico's contemporary crises. In particular, it shows that chronic violence is not the result of state failure in Mexico, but rather is deeply embedded in historical processes of post-revolutionary state formation."—Ben Fallaw, Colby College "This book's greatest contribution is to show how violence in modern-day Mexico has undergone a fundamental change. No longer a state against rebels, instead we have the mayhem and coercion of a huge collection of private actors—narcos, gangs, and police, to name only the most obvious—that have filled the void left by a downsized state."—Terry Rugeley, University of Oklahoma <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=16863">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Mexico is currently undergoing a crisis of violence and insecurity that poses serious threats to democratic transition and rule of law. This is the first book to put these developments in the context of post-revolutionary state-making in Mexico and to show that violence in Mexico is not the result of state failure, but of state-making. While most accounts of politics and the state in recent decades have emphasized processes of transition, institutional conflict resolution, and neo-liberal reform, this volume lays out the increasingly important role of violence and coercion by a range of state and non-state armed actors. Moreover, by going beyond the immediate concerns of contemporary Mexico, this volume pushes us to rethink longterm processes of state-making and recast influential interpretations of the so-called golden years of PRI rule. Violence, Coercion, and State-Making in Twentieth-Century Mexico demonstrates that received wisdom has long prevented the concerted and systematic study of violence and coercion in state-making, not only during the last decades, but throughout the post-revolutionary period. The Mexican state was built much more on violence and coercion than has been acknowledged—until now. Wil G. Pansters is Professor of Latin American Studies and Director of the Mexican Studies Centre at the University of Groningen. He is also Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=16863 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=16863 The Revolt of the Whip The Revolt of the Whip Joseph L. Love "This is a solid contribution to our understanding of color, class, and politics in Brazil's Old Republic, with clear implications for the ongoing debate on such matters in present-day Brazil. Because of the quality of the writing and the scholarship, it will become an enduring reference, one with potential to inspire continued work on class and political repression."—Jeffrey D. Needell, University of Florida "In this compact book, there is both a big and insightful argument about the stakes in Brazilian politics across the twentieth century and an important and original contribution to understanding the transition in Brazilian politics during the Old Republic."—Dain Borges, University of Chicago <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21019">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This short book brings to life a unique and spectacular set of events in Latin American history. In November 1910, shortly after the inauguration of Brazilian President Hermes da Fonseca, ordinary sailors killed several officers and seized control of several new combat vessels, including two of the most powerful battleships ever produced, and commenced bombing Rio de Janeiro. The mutineers, led by an Afro-Brazilian and mostly black themselves, demanded increased rights—above all the abolition of flogging in the Brazilian navy, the last Western navy to tolerate it. This form of torture was closely associated in the sailors' minds with slavery, which had only been prohibited in Brazil in 1888. These events and the scandals that followed initiated a sustained debate about the role of race and class in Brazilian society and the extent to which Brazil could claim to be a modern nation. The commemoration of the centenary of the mutiny in 2010 saw the country still divided about the meaning of the Revolt of the Whip. Joseph L. Love directs the Lemann Institute of Brazilian Studies at the University of Illinois, where he is Professor Emeritus of History and Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He is the author of three previous books published by Stanford University Press. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21019 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21019 Police Reform in Mexico: Informal Politics and the Challenge of Institutional Change Police Reform in Mexico: Informal Politics and the Challenge of Institutional Change Daniel M. Sabet "A thoughtful, careful, and analytically rigorous account of the vexing problem of police reform in Mexico. The book's wider discussion of the ways that Mexican political institutions both enable and limit successful police reform makes it a timely and provocative must-read for all who care about Mexico and its future."—Diane E. Davis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "This is one of the best books on Mexico written in English in recent years. It provides substantial new research and analysis on one of the most important and least examined challenges in Mexico today: police reform and public security. It is meticulously researched, theoretically nuanced, and well written."—Andrew Selee, Director, Mexico Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21512">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> The urgent need to professionalize Mexican police has been recognized since the early 1990s, but despite even the most well-intentioned promises from elected officials and police chiefs, few gains have been made in improving police integrity. Why have reform efforts in Mexico been largely unsuccessful? This book seeks to answer the question by focusing on Mexico's municipal police, which make up the largest percentage of the country's police forces. Indeed, organized crime presents a major obstacle to institutional change, with criminal groups killing hundreds of local police in recent years. Nonetheless, Daniel Sabet argues that the problems of Mexican policing are really problems of governance. He finds that reform has suffered from a number of policy design and implementation challenges. More importantly, the informal rules of Mexican politics have prevented the continuity of reform efforts across administrations, allowed patronage appointments to persist, and undermined anti-corruption efforts. Although many advances have been made in Mexican policing, weak horizontal and vertical accountability mechanisms have failed to create sufficient incentives for institutional change. Citizens may represent the best hope for counterbalancing the toxic effects of organized crime and poor governance, but the ambivalent relationship between citizens and their police must be overcome to break the vicious cycle of corruption and ineffectiveness. Daniel Sabet is a visiting researcher at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Previously, he coordinated rule of law educational programs for police throughout Latin America as part of the Culture of Lawfulness Project. He is the author of Nonprofits and their Networks: Cleaning the Waters along Mexico's Northern Border. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21512 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21512 Writing Mexican History Writing Mexican History Eric Van Young "I read Eric Van Young's book with great pleasure. His voice is the most distinctive of any of our top colonialists, and his authority in the field is indisputable."—Margaret Chowning, University of California at Berkeley "Van Young is one of the two or three preeminent thinkers in the Mexican and Latin American field whose essays are of such pioneering and enduring value to warrant this kind of greatest hits collection. Not only does he cross fields and disciplines and integrate northern and southern intellectual currents, his essays are a pleasure to read and constitute a rare combination of analytical bite, erudition, and playfulness."—Gilbert M. Joseph, Yale University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=18117">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This collection brings together a group of important and influential essays on Mexican history and historiography by Eric Van Young, a leading scholar in the field. The essays, several of which appear here in English for the first time, are primarily historiographical; that is, they address the ways in which separate historical literatures have developed over time. They cover a wide range of topics: the historiography of the colonial and nineteenth-century Mexican and Latin American countryside; historical writing in English on the history of colonial Mexico; British, American, and Mexican historical writing on the Mexican Independence movement; the methodology of regional and cultural history; and the relationship of cultural to economic history. Some of the essays have been and will continue to be controversial, while others—for example, those on studies of the Mexican hacienda since 1980, on the theory and method of regional history, and on the "new cultural history" of Mexico—are widely considered classics of the genre. Eric Van Young is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego. His works include The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Struggle for Mexican Independence, 1810–1821 (Stanford University Press, 2001; recipient of the Bolton-Johnson Prize). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18117 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18117 Making the Chinese Mexican: Global Migration, Localism, and Exclusion in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands Making the Chinese Mexican: Global Migration, Localism, and Exclusion in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands Grace Peña Delgado "This path-breaking history is a probing analysis of the interconnected worlds that the Chinese in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands created, inhabited, and sometimes contested. Making the Chinese Mexican is a stunning example of borderlands history."—Erika Lee, University of Minnesota "Delgado gives new life to the argument that the U.S.-Mexico borderlands were diverse and unpredictable. Her attentiveness to the commonalities and differences in the U.S. and Mexico, as well as the historical possibilities and tragedies, will make this required reading for all social historians of the region."—Katherine Benton-Cohen, Georgetown University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=9775">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Making the Chinese Mexican is the first book to examine the Chinese diaspora in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. It presents a fresh perspective on immigration, nationalism, and racism through the experiences of Chinese migrants in the region during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Navigating the interlocking global and local systems of migration that underlay Chinese borderlands communities, the author situates the often-paradoxical existence of these communities within the turbulence of exclusionary nationalisms. The world of Chinese fronterizos (borderlanders) was shaped by the convergence of trans-Pacific networks and local arrangements: against a backdrop of national unrest in Mexico and in the era of exclusionary immigration policies in the United States, Chinese fronterizos carved out vibrant, enduring communities that provided a buffer against virulent Sinophobia. This book challenges us to reexamine the complexities of nation-making, identity formation, and the meaning of citizenship. It represents an essential contribution to our understanding of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Grace Peña Delgado is Assistant Professor of History at The Pennsylvania State University. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=9775 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=9775 Building Colonial Cities of God: Mendicant Orders and Urban Culture in New Spain Building Colonial Cities of God: Mendicant Orders and Urban Culture in New Spain Karen Melvin "Deep in primary research and offering a strikingly original interpretation of the role of mendicant orders at the generative heart of Mexico itself, Melvin's study ought to be consulted by all serious students of New Spain for the foreseeable future."—Kenneth Mills, University of Toronto <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20050">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This book tracks New Spain's mendicant orders past their so-called golden age of missions into the ensuing centuries and demonstrates that they had equally crucial roles in what Melvin terms the "spiritual consolidation" of cities. Beginning in the late sixteenth century, cities became home to the majority of friars and to the orders' wealthiest houses, and mendicants became deeply embedded in urban social and cultural life. Friars ministered to urban residents of all races and social standings and engaged in traditional mendicant activities, serving as preachers, confessors, spiritual directors, alms collectors, educators, scholars, and sponsors of charitable works. Each order brought to this work a distinct identity that informed people's beliefs and shaped variations in the practice of Catholicism. Contrary to prevailing views, mendicant orders flourished during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and even the eighteenth-century reforms that ended this era were not as devastating as has been assumed.Even in the face of new institutional challenges, the demand for their services continued through the end of the colonial period, demonstrating the continued vitality of baroque piety. Karen Melvin is Assistant Professor of History at Bates College. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20050 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20050 The Hierarchies of Slavery in Santos, Brazil, 1822–1888 The Hierarchies of Slavery in Santos, Brazil, 1822–1888 Ian Read "This book offers a unique perspective on slavery in nineteenth-century Brazil. As a work of historical demography that spans most of the nineteenth century, The Hierarchies of Slavery in Santos, Brazil, 1822–1888 is an ambitious study. It offers the most comprehensive view of a discrete, urban Brazilian slave population yet to be produced and is a very important contribution to the history of slavery, not only in Brazil but also in comparative perspective."—Linda Lewin, University of California, Berkeley "This impressively and, indeed, massively researched study is the first to demonstrate, systematically and in depth, that how slaves exercised their agency often depended in part on who owned them and how they were employed. It is a pioneering work, standing out for its analysis of urban slavery from multiple angles and for its use of such a wide variety of sources."—B.J. Barickman, University of Arizona <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=18049">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Despite the inherent brutality of slavery, some slaves could find small but important opportunities to act decisively. The Hierarchies of Slavery in Santos, Brazil, 1822–1888 explores such moments of opportunity and resistance in Santos, a Southeastern township in Imperial Brazil. It argues that slavery in Brazil was hierarchical: slaves' fleeting chances to form families, work jobs that would not kill or maim, avoid debilitating diseases, or find a (legal or illegal) pathway out of slavery were highly influenced by their demographic background and their owners' social position. By tracing the lives of slaves and owners through multiple records, the author is able to show that the cruelties that slaves faced were not equally shared. One important implication is that internal stratification likely helped perpetuate slavery because there was the belief, however illusionary, that escaping captivity was not necessary for social mobility. Ian Read is Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies at Soka University of America. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18049 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18049 Cleansing Honor with Blood: Masculinity, Violence, and Power in the Backlands of Northeast Brazil, 1845–1889 Cleansing Honor with Blood: Masculinity, Violence, and Power in the Backlands of Northeast Brazil, 1845–1889 Martha S. Santos "Santos presents a very important revisionist analysis of patriarchy and male violence in the Brazilian northeast. She historicizes the construction of masculinity and gender norms in the Brazilian rural interior, rejecting stereotypes of sertanejos as inherently violent. Instead, she shows how male identities based on personal courage and the willingness to use violence were linked to socio-economic constraints and discusses how both changed over time. She also explores the historical agency of women within a context of economic scarcity and gender inequality."—Judy Bieber, University of New Mexico <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=11360">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This book offers a critical reinterpretation of male violence, patriarchy, and machismo in rural Latin America. It focuses on the lives of lower-class men and women, known as sertanejo/as, in the hinterlands of the northeastern Brazilian province of Ceará between 1845 and 1889. Challenging the widely accepted depiction of sertanejos as conditioned to violence by nature, culture, and climate, Santos argues that their concern with maintaining an honorable manly reputation and the use of violence were historically contingent strategies employed to resolve conflicts over scant resources and to establish power over women and other men. She also traces a shift in the functioning of patriarchy that coincided with changes in the material fortunes of sertanejo families. As economic dislocation, environmental calamity, and family separation led to greater female autonomy and an erosion of patriarchal authority in the home, public—and often violent—enforcement of male power maintained patriarchal order in these communities. Martha S. Santos is Assistant Professor of Latin American History at the University of Akron. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=11360 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=11360