The Colonial Spanish-American City: Urban Life in the Age of Atlantic Capitalism

History

Kinsbruner, Jay

Americas

University of Texas Press

Winner, A Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Book, 2007
The colonial Spanish-American city, like its counterpart across the Atlantic, was an outgrowth of commercial enterprise. A center of entrepreneurial activity and wealth, it drew people seeking a better life, with more educational, occupational, commercial, bureaucratic, and marital possibilities than were available in the rural regions of the Spanish colonies. Indeed, the Spanish-American city represented hope and opportunity, although not for everyone.
In this authoritative work, Jay Kinsbruner draws on many sources to offer the first history and interpretation in English of the colonial Spanish-American city. After an overview of pre-Columbian cities, he devotes chapters to many important aspects of the colonial city, including its governance and administrative structure, physical form, economy, and social and family life. Kinsbruner's overarching thesis is that the Spanish-American city evolved as a circumstance of trans-Atlantic capitalism. Underpinning this thesis is his view that there were no plebeians in the colonial city. He calls for a class interpretation, with an emphasis on the lower-middle class. His study also explores the active roles of women, many of them heads of households, in the colonial Spanish-American city.

Winner, A Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Book, 2007
The colonial Spanish-American city, like its counterpart across the Atlantic, was an outgrowth of commercial enterprise. A center of entrepreneurial activity and wealth, it drew people seeking a better life, with more educational, occupational, commercial, bureaucratic, and marital possibilities than were available in the rural regions of the Spanish colonies. Indeed, the Spanish-American city represented hope and opportunity, although not for everyone.
In this authoritative work, Jay Kinsbruner draws on many sources to offer the first history and interpretation in English of the colonial Spanish-American city. After an overview of pre-Columbian cities, he devotes chapters to many important aspects of the colonial city, including its governance and administrative structure, physical form, economy, and social and family life. Kinsbruner's overarching thesis is that the Spanish-American city evolved as a circumstance of trans-Atlantic capitalism. Underpinning this thesis is his view that there were no plebeians in the colonial city. He calls for a class interpretation, with an emphasis on the lower-middle class. His study also explores the active roles of women, many of them heads of households, in the colonial Spanish-American city.

Not of Pure Blood: The Free People of Color and Racial Prejudice in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico

Countering the popular misconception that racial discrimination has largely not existed in Puerto Rico, Jay Kinsbruner’s Not of Pure Blood shows that racial prejudice has long had an insidious effect on Puerto Rican society. Kinsbruner’s study focuses on the free people of color—those of African descent who were considered nonwhite but were legally free during slavery—in order to explore the nature of racial prejudice in nineteenth-century Puerto Rico. In considering the consequences of these nineteenth-century attitudes on twentieth-century Puerto Rico, Kinsbruner suggests that racial discrimination continues to limit opportunities for people of color. Following a discussion of Puerto Rican racial prejudice in historical perspective, Kinsbruner describes residential patterns, marriages, births, deaths, occupations, and family and household matters to demonstrate that free people of color were a disadvantaged community whose political, social, and economic status was diminished by racism. He analyzes the complexities and contradictions of Puerto Rican racial prejudice and discrimination, explains the subtleties of “shade discrimination,” and examines the profoundly negative impact on race relations of the U.S. occupation of the island following the Spanish American War. Looking behind the myth of Puerto Rican racial equity, Not of Pure Blood will be of interest to specialists in Caribbean studies, Puerto Rican history, and Latin America studies, and to scholars in a variety of fields investigating questions of racism and discrimination.

Duke University Press Books

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Sixteen nations emerged from the violent and cataclysmic wars in Spanish America in the early nineteenth century. In overturning Spain's control of the Americas, such great military leaders as Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin unleashed both civil wars and revolutions between 1810 and 1824. the liberators set themselves up to govern the new states they created but quickly failed as rulers. They succumbed, in part, to change resulting from independence itself -- a new political order. 
Military campaigns directed against Spain split the colonists into royalists and patriots, resulting in a decade of civil wars. The newly formed nations simultaneously embraced capitalism and liberalism, but divisions persisted over the purpose of government, economics, and society. Clearly laid out in this account is an insightful interpretation of a pivotal era in world history. The turbulent history of the independence movements is set forth with attention to key figures and their ideologies, regional differences, and the legacy of the wars of independence.

Independence in Spanish America: Civil Wars, Revolutions, and Underdevelopment (Dialogos)

University of New Mexico Press

In overturning Spain's control of the Americas, such great military leaders as Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín unleashed both civil wars and revolutions between 1810 and 1824. Sixteen nations emerged from these violent and cataclysmic wars. The liberators set themselves up to govern the new states they created but quickly failed as rulers. They succumbed, in part, to changes resulting from independence itself-a new political order.
Military campaigns directed against Spain split the colonists into royalists and patriots, resulting in a decade of civil wars. The newly formed nations simultaneously embraced capitalism and liberalism, but divisions persisted over the purpose of government and the organization of the economy and society.
Clearly laid out in this book is an insightful interpretation of a pivotal era in world history. This new edition, revised and enlarged to take account of recently published studies as well as a rethinking of certain prevailing views, is a compelling reinterpretation of the independence era. The turbulent history of the independence movements is set forth with attention to key figures and their ideologies, regional differences, and the legacy of underdevelopment left by the wars of independence.
 "A superior work of synthesis. . . . Kinsbruner writes in a style which engages the attention of the reader, and scholars as well as students will profit from his book."--John Lynch, Professor Emeritus, University of London "Kinsbruner provides us with a much needed clear, concise interpretation."--Richard W. Slatta, North Carolina State University

Independence in Spanish America: Civil Wars, Revolutions, and Underdevelopment (Diálogos Series)

“Diego Portales: Interpretative Essays on the Man and Times”

Springer

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kinsbruner, Jay. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Kinsbruner, Jay

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kinsbruner, Jay. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Colonial Spanish-American City: Urban Life in the Age of Atlantic Capitalism

The Colonial Spanish-American City: Urban Life in the Age of Atlantic Capitalism

The Colonial Spanish-American City: Urban Life in the Age of Atlantic Capitalism

Not of Pure Blood: The Free People of Color and Racial Prejudice in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico

Not of Pure Blood: The Free People of Color and Racial Prejudice in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico

Independence in Spanish America: Civil Wars, Revolutions, and Underdevelopment (Dialogos)

Independence in Spanish America: Civil Wars, Revolutions, and Underdevelopment (Diálogos Series)

“Diego Portales: Interpretative Essays on the Man and Times”