In Bandits and Liberals, Rebels and Saints Alan Knight offers a distinct perspective on several overarching themes in Latin American history, spanning approximately two centuries, from 1800 to 2000. Knight’s approach is ambitious and comparative—sometimes ranging beyond Latin America and combining relevant social theory with robust empirical detail. He tries to offer answers to big questions while challenging alternative answers and approaches, including several recently fashionable ones. While the individual essays and the book as a whole are roughly chronological, the approach is essentially thematic, with chapters devoted to major contentious themes in Latin American history across two centuries: the sociopolitical roots and impact of banditry; the character and evolution of liberalism; religious conflict; the divergent historical trajectories of Peru and Mexico; the nature of informal empire and internal colonialism; and the region’s revolutionary history—viewed through the twin prisms of British perceptions and comparative global history.

In Bandits and Liberals, Rebels and Saints Alan Knight offers a distinct perspective on several overarching themes in Latin American history, spanning approximately two centuries, from 1800 to 2000. Knight's approach is ambitious and comparative--sometimes ranging beyond Latin America and combining relevant social theory with robust empirical detail. He tries to offer answers to big questions while challenging alternative answers and approaches, including several recently fashionable ones. While the individual essays and the book as a whole are roughly chronological, the approach is essentially thematic, with chapters devoted to major contentious themes in Latin American history across two centuries: the sociopolitical roots and impact of banditry; the character and evolution of liberalism; religious conflict; the divergent historical trajectories of Peru and Mexico; the nature of informal empire and internal colonialism; and the region's revolutionary history--viewed through the twin prisms of British perceptions and comparative global history.

"This book explores the ways in which people in Latin America and the Caribbean joined with others in Europe and the United States to re-imagine the ancient term "democracy", so as to give it relevance and power in the modern world. In all these regions, that process largely followed the French Revolution; in Latin America it more especially followed independence movements of the 1810s and 20s. The book looks at how a variety of political actors and commentators used the term to characterize or argue about modern conditions through the ensuing half-century; by 1870, it was firmly established in mainstream political lexicons throughout the region. Following introductory scene-setting and overview chapters, specialists contribute wide-ranging accounts of aspects of the context in which the word was "re-imagined"; six final chapters explore differences in its fortune from place to place"--

Neoliberalism is often studied as a political ideology, a government program, and even as a pattern of cultural identities. However, less attention is paid to the specific institutional resources employed by neoliberal administrations, which have resulted in the configuration of a neoliberal state model. This accessible volume compiles original essays on the neoliberal era in Latin America and Spain, exploring subjects such as neoliberal public policies, power strategies, institutional resources, popular support, and social protest. The book focuses on neoliberalism as a state model: a configuration of public power designed to implement radical policy proposals. This is the third volume in the State and Nation Making in Latin America and Spain series, which aims to complete and advance research and knowledge about national states in Latin America and Spain.

What are fallen tyrants owed? What makes debt illegitimate? And when is bankruptcy moral? Drawing on new archival sources, this book shows how Latin American nations have wrestled with the morality of indebtedness and insolvency since their foundation, and outlines how their history can shed new light on contemporary global dilemmas. With a focus on the early modern Spanish Empire and modern Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina, and based on archival research carried out across seven countries, Odious Debt studies 400 years of history and unearths overlooked congressional debates and understudied thinkers. The book shows how discussions on the morality of debt and default played a structuring role in the construction and codification of national constitutions, identities, and international legal norms in Latin America. This new history of the moral economy of the Hispanic World from the 1520s to the 1920s illuminates contemporary issues in international law and international relations. Latin American jurists developed a global critique of economics and international law that continues to generate pressing questions about debt, bankruptcy, reparations, and the pursuit of a moral global economy.

Follow the fascinating true stories of one family through the Mormon pioneer era—stories that follow four generations and several of the author’s family lines as they and their fellow pioneers help shape the early history of the Mormon Church, the American West, and even Mexico. This memorable journey is the culmination of fifteen years of painstaking research as the author carefully reconstructs the pioneer struggles from before 1830 to 1918 using information from family journals, memoirs, histories and letters. Volume III (The Last Pioneers/Refuge in Mexico, 1876-1918) concludes the family history by explaining how polygamous family pioneers moved from Utah to settle Arizona and New Mexico; how the pioneers faced Indian and mob threats again in their new home; how, because of polygamy, the threat of imprisonment forced the settlers to flee into Mexico, where they battled Indians and the elements, adjusted to Mexican culture and citizenship, and prospered; how they were soon victims of the Mexican Revolution, caught between two marauding armies; and how they were finally forced back across the border as impoverished refugees in the very states they had once pioneered. My Own Pioneers is an important work illuminating the legacy of the Mormon pioneers. It is a compilation of true chronological accounts through which their lives, their sacrifices, and their considerable accomplishments, despite terrible hardship, may be honored. With its extensive index, this book provides an excellent research tool for academics as well as history enthusiasts; and it uplifts every reader by showcasing the enduring strength and mighty faith of these pioneers.

This textbook offers an interpretive overview of the history of the Latin American region since the mid-eighteenth century. Its central focus is the struggle of ordinary folks to control their daily lives. It examines the social, economic, and political institutions Latin Americans built and rebuilt, such as families, governments (from village to national levels), churches, political parties, labor unions, schools, and armies, through the lives of the people forged them. It explores the texture of everyday life.

Recounts the life and exploits of the legendary leader of the farmers of South Mexico in their 1910-1919 revolution, viewing Zapara as a highly skilled and committed guerilla leader.