State and Society in Spanish America During the Age of Revolution ed. by Victor M. Uribe-Uran (review)

The advances militiamen made were neither uniform nor permanent and Vinson effectively demonstrates this through his attention to location and region. However, by concluding that militia service held implications for an overall racial identity, Vinson could have further considered how regional, local and community forms of identity may have informed this racial identity. The study only briefly considers identity in relation to the local community (pages 100 to 102) and might have benefited by examining cultural as well as political expressions of identity, which would illustrate the nature of this racial identity and what forms it took. Perhaps this might have been achieved through greater analysis of confraternities, which Vinson describes as the only other institutional entity, which conferred the benefits of corporate membership to free-colored peoples. Vinson makes a valuable contribution to the class versus caste debate, the study of casta and plebeian society, the nature and practice of colonial rule especially as it changed during the period of Bourbon reforms. Because Vinson writes in a lucid manner and carefully relates his findings to the historical scholarship, his work will prove accessible and useful to upperlevel undergraduate students. Much as Vinson employs the approaches of a variety of historians, including ethnohistorians and those who have addressed the effects of the Bourbon reforms, so his study offers much to interest a variety of specialists. Vinson offers a model of research and shows how effective institutional histories may be for the scholarship on African experiences, a field of study he has advanced considerably. Scholars may follow his superb example by integrating considerations of casta racial identity in relation to other ethnic groups at the local level and extend his research through the Independence and early National periods. Vinson’s excellent work demonstrates that the current flurry of scholarly activity in this field may continue for a while yet. Richard Conway The University of Southern Mississippi Uribe-Uran, Victor M., Ed. State and Society in SpanishAmerica During the Age of Revolution. Wilrnington: Scholarly Resources Inc., 2001. Victor M. Uribc-Uran’s edited volume utilizes the theme of historical continuity and change and makes a contribution to the prevailing research on the political, economic, and social development of Latin America during the Age of Revolution (1 760 to 1850). Written by established Latin American historians as well as emerging scholars, the work includes eight essays and is organized into four sections: political economy; elites, state-government building, and business development; gender and family relations; and Rook Reviews 137 ideologies, values, and cultural practices. Each of the individual essays challenges historians and students of Spanish America to re-examine the Age of Revolution from a more comprehensive vantage point in order to appreciate this unique historical period. Collectively, the eight essays focus on and stress historical patterns in and across countries in the region with particular attention on Chile, Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico. The text is framed in the conventional/traditional VS. modern/alternative debate, which Uribe-Uran acknowledges is a thorny and complex way of highlighting comprehensiveness due to the use of revisionism. Specific topics range from comparing changes in popular dance and marital problems to the transformation of business practices, gender relations, and ideologies. Not only is this book a contribution to the literature, it is also ideal for courses on Latin American history, specifically colonial history, national history, and the Age of Revolution. The overall strength of the volume is the research strategy, which gives considerable attention to the power of historical context in establishing a comprehensive understanding of the Age of Revolution. The authors contend that conventional analyses present a mostly political perspective of Latin America between 1760 and 1850 that emphasizes political disorder. State and Sociecv offers scholars a modern alternative that tells the story of revision with essays on the late colonial, independence, and the post-colonial eras. This study builds from Van Young's recommendation that historians must focus on periods of social and economic transition and political independence, which produce important systemic and cultural changes. It also speaks in a highly coherent fashion to detractors who contend that the Age of Revolution is non-essential in our scholarly discernment of Latin American political, economic, and...