New Countries: Capitalism, Revolutions, and Nations in the Americas, 1750–1870 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822361337 ISBN 13: 9780822361336

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 2016

Synopsis

After 1750 the Americas lived political and popular revolutions, the fall of European empires, and the rise of nations as the world faced a new industrial capitalism. Political revolution made the United States the first new nation; revolutionary slaves made Haiti the second, freeing themselves and destroying the leading Atlantic export economy. A decade later, Bajío insurgents took down the silver economy that fueled global trade and sustained Spain’s empire while Britain triumphed at war and pioneered industrial ways that led the U.S. South, still-Spanish Cuba, and a Brazilian empire to expand slavery to supply rising industrial centers. Meanwhile, the fall of silver left people from Mexico through the Andes searching for new states and economies. After 1870 the United States became an agro-industrial hegemon, and most American nations turned to commodity exports, while Haitians and diverse indigenous peoples struggled to retain independent ways.    
Contributors. Alfredo Ávila, Roberto Breña, Sarah C. Chambers, Jordana Dym, Carolyn Fick, Erick Langer, Adam Rothman, David Sartorius, Kirsten Schultz, John Tutino

About this title

About the Author:

John Tutino is Professor of History at Georgetown University and author of Making a New World: Founding Capitalism in the Bajío and Spanish North America, also published by Duke University Press. He leads the Georgetown Americas Initiative, which sponsored the workshops which led to this volume. 

Review:

"New Countries opens up possibilities for new inquiries that link the global with the local. This book is long overdue." (Edward P. Pompeian Journal of Social History 2017-07-19)

"Because of the diversity of themes and nations covered by the volume, including identity, liberalism, slavery, industrialization, and Indigenous rights to name a few, it will appeal to multiple audiences. . . . In the end, New Countries proposes an innovative, ambitious, and exciting framework to view the Age of Revolutions, the Atlantic World, and the path to liberalism and industrial capitalism." (Erin Woodruff Stone Canadian Journal of History 2017-12-01)

"Historians of the United States will find this well-edited volume’s emphasis on the move in the hemisphere from diversity to consolidation, and on the common impact or effects of civil wars, abolitionism, and the imposition of racial exclusions and disabilities on large segments of national populations during the adjustment to world economy (as traced in a conclusion by Tutino and Langer) to be a useful way to rethink American exceptionalism and to think comparatively about the political and social effects of the global economy." (Stuart B. Schwartz Journal of American History 2018-03-01)

"Seasoned teachers of the history of the Americas will find much in this anthology that echoes and clarifies their own efforts to map out hemispheric patterns and plot wider connections. Students of the Americas, particularly those at more advanced levels, and specialists of other regions and disciplines will benefit from the effort the authors have made to create an ‘integrated history’ of the Americas that views events from a broad social and economic perspective, takes proper account of contingency, particularly the impact of organised violence and warfare, and addresses both the commonality and the diversity of the historical experience of the hemisphere." (Guy Thomson Journal of Latin American Studies 2018-05-01)

“This exceptionally strong volume provides a critical step toward bringing interpretive coherence to the distinct yet inseparable wave trains that swelled across and in some cases smashed against American shores during this revolutionary age.” (Steven J. Bachelor The Latin Americanist 2018-05-11)

"A remarkable effort. . . . An important book that makes an extraordinary effort of synthesis by looking at global and hemispheric history. It offers sophisticated insights about the political and economic connections linking the Americas to the world. As such, it will dispel inherited historiographical misrepresentations of the nineteenth century." (Marcela Echeverri Agricultural History 2017-10-01)

About this edition

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0822361337
• ISBN 13: 9780822361336
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 408
• Editor: Tutino John