Table of contents

The Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America is an anthology of stories of largely ordinary individuals struggling to forge a life during the unstable colonial period in Latin America. These mini-biographies vividly show the tensions that emerged when the political, social, religious, and economic ideals of the Spanish and Portuguese colonial regimes and the Roman Catholic Church conflicted with the realities of daily living in the Americas. Now fully updated with new and revised essays, the book is carefully balanced among countries and ethnicities. Within an overall theme of social order and disorder in a colonial setting, the stories bring to life issues of gender; race and ethnicity; conflicts over religious orthodoxy; and crime, violence, and rebellion. Written by leading scholars, the essays are specifically designed to be readable and interesting. Ideal for the Latin American history survey and for courses on colonial Latin American history, this fresh and human text will engage as well as inform students. Contributions by: Rolena Adorno, Kenneth J. Andrien, Christiana Borchart de Moreno, Joan Bristol, Noble David Cook, Marcela Echeverri, Lyman L. Johnson, Mary Karasch, Alida C. Metcalf, Kenneth Mills, Muriel S. Nazzari, Ana María Presta, Susan E. Ramírez, Matthew Restall, Zeb Tortorici, Camilla Townsend, Ann Twinam, and Nancy E. van Deusen.

The Human Tradition in Modern Brazil makes the last two centuries of Brazilian history come alive through the stories of mostly non-elite individuals. The pieces in this lively collection address how people experienced historical continuities and changes by exploring how they related to the rise of Brazilian national identity and the emergence of a national state. By including a broad array of historical actors from different regions, ethnicities, occupations, races, genders, and eras, The Human Tradition in Modern Brazil brings a human dimension to major economic, political, cultural, and social transitions. Because these perspectives do not always fit with the generalizations made about the predominant attitudes, values, and beliefs of different groups, they bring a welcome complexity to the understanding of Brazilian society and history.

This rich collection of biographies of African men and women adds a crucial human dimension to our understanding of African history since 1800. The last two centuries have been a time of enormous change on the continent, and these life stories show how people survived by resisting European conquest and colonial rule, by collaborating with colonial powers, or by finding a middle way to live their lives through tumultuous times. Bringing the story to the present, the book traces the era of independence since the 1960s through challenges to the rule of African dictators, struggles for the rights of women and mothers, the exploitation of youth and child soldiers, and economic booms and busts. By recounting the lives of real, identifiable people from societies across Africa south of the Sahara and from African communities in Europe, this unique book underscores the importance and power of individual agency in understanding the recent African past, a vital complement to analyses of broader, impersonal social and economic factors. Contributions by: Agnès Adjamagbo, Maryan Muuse Boqor, Dennis D. Cordell, José C. Curto, Mamadou Diouf, Andreas Eckert, Laura Fair, Tovin Falola, Doug Henry, Lidwien Kapteijns, Issiaka Mandé, Cora Ann Presley, Carolyn F. Sargent, Pamela Scully, Ibrahim Sundiata, and Marcia Wright.

The Human Tradition in Modern Latin America will be an invaluable text for courses in Latin American studies.

This collection of compact biographies puts a human face on the sweeping historical processes that shaped contemporary societies throughout the Atlantic world. Focusing on life stories that represented movement across or around the Atlantic Ocean from 1500 to 1850, The Human Tradition in the Atlantic World, 1500–1850 explores transatlantic connections by following individuals—be they slaves, traders, or adventurers—whose experience took them far beyond their local communities to new and unfamiliar places. Whatever their reasons, tremendous creativity and dynamism resulted from contact between people of different cultures, classes, races, ideas, and systems in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. By emphasizing movement and circulation in its choice of life stories, this readable and engaging volume presents a broad cross-section of people—both famous and everyday—whose lives and livelihoods took them across the Atlantic and brought disparate cultures into contact.

The Human Tradition in Premodern China is a collection of biographical essays revealing the variety and complexity of human experience in China from the earliest historical times to the dawn of the modern age. p China is a vast country with a long history, and one which is by itself as complex as the history of Europe. This broad expanse of time and space in Chinese history has largely been approached in terms of narrative political and cultural history in most books. The reigns of emperors and the thoughts of the great masters such as Confucius or Laozi have been the principal focus. Yet the history of the Chinese, as with any great people, is built up from the lives of individuals, families, groups, and movements. By presenting life stories of individuals ranging from ancient court diviners to late imperial merchants to women in various periods, this engaging anthology highlights aspects of Chinese social, political and intellectual history not usually addressed. Additionally, The Human Tradition in Premodern China broadens the common image and understanding of society based on the dominant elite male discourse.p Rich in new perspective and new scholarship, The Human Tradition in Premodern China is an ideal introduction to Chinese history, East Asian history, and world history.p