Synopses & Reviews
This book is one in a three volume general history of Mexico, comprising (I) the PreConquest period to 1521, (II) the Colonial period from 1521 to 1821, and (III) the National period from 1821-present. These books give a comprehensive narrative and analysis of Mexican history, focusing especially on political, economic, and social organization. Balancing both a 'bottom-up'(popular) and a 'top-down' (elite) perspective, they seek, where possible, to locate Mexico within broader, comparative patterns of historical change and conflict.
Review
"...an essential resource not only for historians of Mexico and Latin America but also of the European overseas expansion. Knight's work represents scholarly synthesis as its best: it offers both information and interpretation and is upheld by a massive body of documentation." Bulletin of the Society of Spanish &Portuguese HistoryProfessor Knight's new book is a fine one. It is a piece of scholarship well-presented, interesting, and very suggestive." Itinerario"Knight .... has written a general history of Mexico that synthesizes a rich base of published sources... Recommended." Choice
Synopsis
This, the second in a three-volume history of Mexico, focuses on the period 1521 to 1821, and offers a comprehensive narrative and analysis of colonial Mexico following the Spanish conquest. Concludes with an analysis of the accumulating tensions of the Bourbon era and of the bloody struggle for Mexican independence.
Table of Contents
Part I. The Habsburg Colony: 1. Military and material conquest; 2. Spiritual conquest; 3. Political conquest; 4. The 'conquest' of the north; 5. Hacienda and village; 6. Acculturation and resistance: Central Mexico; 7. Acculturation and resistance: North and South; 8. The political economy of New Spain; 9. The Imperial liaison; Part II. Bourbon New Spain: 10. The Bourbon economy; 11. The Bourbon project; 12. The Imperial liaison; 13. Towards independence; 14. The insurgency.