Kinsbruner, Jay : Queens College / City University of New York
Jay Kinsbruner has published and taught on Latin American history for over thirty years. He is professor emeritus
of history at Queens College, City University of New York.
Review
" . . . a superior work of synthesis, which accommodates traditional concerns and newer approaches, . .
. Jay Kinsbruner writes in a style which engages the attention of the reader, and scholars as well as students
will profit from his book."
--Journal of Latin American Studies
" . . . an excellent summary . . . Clear, concise, and fair, Kinsbruner's book is an enormously intelligent
analysis . . . a book of considerable wisdom. It is now the best one-volume treatment of Spanish American independence
on the market, highly suitable for students and general readers and equally absorbing for the specialist."
--The Historian
University New Mexico Press Web Site, February, 2002
Summary
Sixteen nations emerged from the violent and cataclysmic wars of Spanish America in the early nineteenth century.
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. 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.
