Latin American Cultural Objects and Episodes. William H. Beezley

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Series Editor’s Preface

      Each book in the “Viewpoints/Puntos de Vista” series introduces students to a significant theme or topic in Latin American history. In an age in which student and faculty interest in the Global South increasingly challenges the old focus on the history of Europe and North America, Latin American history has assumed a prominent position in undergraduate curricula. At a time when immigration restrictions, a growing income gap, and a pandemic have combined to problematize globalization under the aegis of neoliberalism, knowledge of Latin American history is also important for the public at large.

      Some of the books in this series discuss the ways in which historians have interpreted these themes and topics, thus demonstrating that our understanding of our past is constantly changing, through the emergence of new sources, methodologies, and historical theories. Others offer an introduction to a particular theme by means of a case study or biography in a manner easily understood by the contemporary, non‐specialist reader. Yet others give an overview of a major theme that might serve as the foundation of an upper‐level course.

      What is common to all of these books is their goal of historical synthesis. They draw on the insights of generations of scholarship on the most enduring and fascinating issues in Latin American history, while also making use of primary sources as appropriate. Each book is written by a first‐rate scholar and specialist in Latin American history committed to bringing their expertise into the undergraduate classroom and to a public audience.

The books in this series can be used in a variety of ways, recognizing the differences in teaching conditions at small liberal arts colleges, large public universities, and research‐oriented institutions with doctoral programs. Faculty have particular needs depending on whether they teach large lectures with discussion sections, small lecture or discussion‐oriented classes, or large lectures with no discussion sections, and whether they teach on a semester or trimester system. The format adopted for this series fits all of these different parameters, as well as the needs of a general public interested in learning more about Latin American history without prior academic preparation.

      This volume celebrates a milestone as the tenth book in the “Viewpoints/Puntos de Vista” series, and the first edited and published with the assistance of Jennifer Manias, Wiley’s Acquisitions Editor in History. In Latin American Cultural Objects and Episodes, William H. Beezley provides a compelling and fascinating analysis of Latin America’s rich cultural history, using as its point of departure the history of objects. Drawing on historical literature and primary sources from Latin America, Europe, and the United States, the author takes the reader on a historical tour de force that uses a vast array of objects, from coffee beans to bowler hats, cartoons, and roasted chicken, as gateways to understanding major themes in cultural history, and most importantly, the complex art of survival and resistance in a world region buffeted by conquest, colonialism, exploitation, imperialism, and social inequality. Written by one of the pioneers in Latin American cultural history whose 1987 book, Judas at the Jockey Club and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico, helped spark intense interest in this field, the book also brings objects to life as mementos to everyday life and material culture – aspects of history that a more traditional or textual analysis illuminates only with great difficulty. I am most pleased to present this important work to what I hope will be a wide readership.

      Jürgen Buchenau

      University of North Carolina

      Charlotte, USA