Trials of Nation Making
Liberalism, Race, and Ethnicity in the Andes, 1810–1910

The first interpretive synthesis of the history of Andean peasants.

Brooke Larson (Author)

9780521567305, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 January 2004

318 pages, 14 b/w illus. 2 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.433 kg

"This masterful book is an expansion of Larson's important extended essay on nineteenth-century indigenes in the Andes...Larson has a commanding knowledge of the monographic literature about Andean indigenes." Journal of Interdisciplinary History Frank Safford, Northwestern University

This book offers the first interpretive synthesis of the history of Andean peasants and the challenges of nation-making in the four republics of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia during the turbulent nineteenth century. Nowhere in Latin America were postcolonial transitions more vexed or violent than in the Andes, where communal indigenous roots grew deep and where the 'Indian problem' seemed so daunting to liberalizing states. Brooke Larson paints vivid portraits of Creole ruling élites and native peasantries engaged in ongoing political and moral battles over the rightful place of the Indian majorities in these emerging nation-states. In this story, indigenous people emerge as crucial protagonists through their prosaic struggles for land, community, and 'ethnic' identity, as well as in the upheaval of war, rebellion, and repression in rural society. This book raises broader issues about the interplay of liberalism, racism, and ethnicity in the formation of exclusionary 'republics without citizens'.

Introduction
1. Andean landscapes, real and imagined
2. Colombia: assimilation or marginalization of the Indians?
3. Ecuador: modernizing Indian servitude as the road to progress
4. Peru: war, national sovereignty and the 'Indian problem'
5. Bolivia: dangerous pacts, insurgent Indians
Conclusion. Postcolonial nation building and the burden of 'race'
Bibliographic essay.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], General & world history [HBG]