Rumours of Wars: Civil Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Latin America (review)

A product of the fifth nineteenth-century history workshop at the University of London's Institute of Latin American Studies, this collection achieves its objective of challenging historical accounts that portray Latin America's nineteenth century as fundamentally one of "epic chaos" and "purposeless tragedies" (p. 3). Eight contributors analyze various conflicts of the period and argue that these were ideologically complex phenomena and not just attempts to grab power by ambitious elites and unscrupulous caudillos. Several authors emphasize that the conflicts were high not only in ideology but also in popular participation.

Indeed, in his essay Frank Safford points to the desirability of focusing on the "social content and social texture" (p. 8) of Latin America's nineteenth-century civil conflicts. Safford cites studies by authors who explore "mobilisation from below" (p. 22) in these internal wars and who dispel the myth that they were simply continuations of elite politics by other means. Safford, calling for attention to localized economic and geographic factors behind the conflicts, cautions against oversimplified generalizations and categorizations.

Other essays approach civil conflict from diverse angles. Carlos Malamud highlights the connection between revolutions and electoral processes in nineteenth-century Argentina. He argues that Argentine politicians of the nineteenth century understood pronunciamientos, uprisings, and revolts as part of the country's political culture, and that the recurrence of such events reflected the low risk to the participants—in terms of personal or property loss—if unsuccessful. Will Fowler examines civil conflict in Mexico between 1821 and 1857, appending to his essay a comprehensive list of the period's revolts and pronunciamientos. Like Malamud, Fowler explains how pronunciamientos reflected the logic of the political process, as they represented a way to propose change both at the regional and national level. Noting that few pronunciamientos or conflicts led to "civil wars which were long-lasting, affected national politics, and involved the population at large" (p. 67), Fowler seeks to re-examine characterizations of this period in Mexico as one of debilitating political chaos.

Elena Plaza investigates the various meanings of the word "federation" to the Venezuelan national elite, liberal and conservative, during the Federal Wars, 1859-63. Plaza chronicles the demise of the Conservative Party at the hands of the federal guerrillas, yet explains that the concept of "federation" remained an abstract one for the people who identified with the guerrillas. In her analysis of the Bolivian civil war of 1899, Marie-Danielle Demélas-Bohy doubts the efficacy of locating a single point of origin for the conflict. Demélas-Bohy argues that a more propitious approach would be to analyze the country's social fabric over the longue durée. Recurrent social practices and geographical continuities associated with civil conflict represent "sites of origins" (p. 151), which better explain the nature of conflict. Dario Euraque's historiographical essay analyzes two important works on nineteenth-century Central America to illuminate the unique historical trajectory of civil conflict in Honduras. In fact, many of the essays, particularly Safford's, offer insightful historiographical analysis.

Two chapters stand out in this fine collection. Focusing on the civil war in Para between 1835 and 1840, John Charles Chasteen explains how Brazilian-born elite used anti-Portuguese nativist appeals as a strategy for empowerment. By demonstrating how these nativist appeals created alliances across racial and class lines, Chasteen not only focuses attention on the popular content of the revolt, but also links nativism with an emerging proto-nationalism, a theme in early nineteenth-century Latin America that recently has received much scholarly attention. Rebecca Earle, in her essay on the War of the Supremes in Colombia (1839-41), also looks at popular involvement. While not discounting the "naked political ambition" (p. 120) of elite participants, Earle shows that the revolt "also fed off pre-existing social conflicts with...