Synopses & Reviews
Revolution in the Andes is an in-depth history of the Tanduacute;pac Amaru insurrection, the largest and most threatening indigenous challenge to Spanish rule in the Andean world after the Conquest. Between 1780 and 1782, insurgent armies were organized throughout the Andean region. Some of the oldest and most populous cities in this regionandmdash;including Cusco, La Paz, Puno, and Oruroandmdash;were besieged, assaulted, or occupied. Huge swaths of the countryside fell under control of the rebel forces. While essentially an indigenous movement, the rebellion sometimes attracted mestizo and Creole support for ousting the Spanish and restoring rule of the Andes to the land's ancestral owners. Sergio Serulnikov chronicles the uprisings and the ensuing war between rebel forces and royalist armies, emphasizing that the insurrection was comprised of several regional movements with varied ideological outlooks, social makeup, leadership structures, and expectations of change.
Review
andquot;Revolution in the Andes is the best single account that I have read of the great uprisings led by Tanduacute;pac Amaru and the other neo-Incan rebels. It is likely to become a much-read book among scholars of Latin America history, culture, and politics, especially Andeanists.andquot;andmdash;Orin Starn, author of Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes
Review
andquot;In this outstanding book, Sergio Serulnikov, one of the foremost scholars of the late colonial Andes, digests a large, multilingual historiography into a single cohesive narrative, framing the largest indigenous revolution of the New World after the Conquest for a wide audience. At the same time, he offers specialists provocative insights and attention to nuance, complexity, and local heterogeneity.andquot;andmdash;Jeremy Adelman, author of Republic of Capital: Buenos Aires and the Legal Transformation of the Atlantic World
Review
"In this beautifully written synthesis, Serulnikov charts the contours of peasant politics and regional tumult – stretching across the southern Andean highlands from Cuzco to Chayanta -- to expose the fissures and fault lines that weakened the edifice of Spanish colonial rule during the 1780s. The tools of political and ethnohistory are combined to rethink why, and how, far-flung peasant communities gathered courage and rose up against Spanish colonial rule in search of community, authority, and justice – themes that still resonant among indigenous activists in the Andes today."—Brooke Larson, author of Trials of Nation Making: Liberalism, Ethnicity, and Race in the Andes, 1810-1910
Review
andldquo;This well-written book is accessible for undergraduates while analytically rich enough to satisfy experts.andrdquo;and#160;
Review
andldquo;Revolution in the Andesoffers us a fluid political narrative of events that is framed in wider structural context, sensitive to local dynamics, and penetrating in its analysis. It is written accessibly to engage a nonscholarly audience and is rendered into English with uncommon skill and elegance by translator David Frye. Ultimately, Serulnikov offers a new vision of how the political thinking and mobilization of Andean insurgents.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;In this thin volume, Serulnikov manages to present an excellent overview of the insurrection as well as a nuanced discussion of regional and local variations. He references a large historiography dating from the 1950s to the present, and an array of archival material, including quotations from Tanduacute;pac Amaru II and imperial officials.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Sergio Serulnikov offers an in-depth history of the Tand#250;pac Amaru insurrection (1780and#8211;82), the largest and most threatening indigenous challenge to Spanish rule in the Andean world after the Conquest.
About the Author
Sergio Serulnikov is Professor of History at the University of San Andrandeacute;s in Buenos Aires and researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientandiacute;ficas y Tandeacute;cnicas de la Argentina. His previous books include Subverting Colonial Authority: Challenges to Spanish Rule in Eighteenth-Century Southern Andes, published by Duke University Press.