Governance and Society in Colonial Mexico - (Chihuahua in the Eighteenth Century) by Richard English Martin (Paperback)

About the Book

This book is a richly detailed examination of social interaction in the city of Chihuahua, a major silver mining center of colonial Mexico. Founded at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the city attracted people from all over New Spain, all summoned "by the voices of the mines of Chihuahua." These included aspiring miners and merchants, mestizo and mulato workers and drifters, Tarahumara Indians indigenous to the area, Yaquis from Sonora, and Apaches from New Mexico. Several hundred Spaniards, principally from Northern Spain, also arrived, hoping to make their fortunes in the New World.

Book Synopsis

This book is a richly detailed examination of social interaction in the city of Chihuahua, a major silver mining center of colonial Mexico. Founded at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the city attracted people from all over New Spain, all summoned "by the voices of the mines of Chihuahua." The author shows how abstract relationships of class, political subordination, ethnicity, and gender took concrete form in the daily life of the diverse people of Chihuahua.

Reviews

"Martin's well-written social history . . . is modest in length, but it is packed with insights and observations that will be useful both to scholars interested in other Mexican regions and to those who study early modern social relations in other settings. . . . Immensely informative and interesting . . . this rich volume will undoubtedly be influential for years to come."

-American Historical Review

"Extremely readable and impressively researched . . . this is an ambitious and deeply analytical study. . . . Among the work's many virtues are the clarity and unpretentiousness of its style, its insightfulness (without over-theorizing), and its sensitivity to its sources."

-Latin American Studies

"Martin has given us a fine study of an eighteenth-century Mexican mining town. It is a work of painstaking scholarship, soft-spoken but with hard theoretical edges, written with clarity, economy, and grace."

-Canadian Journal of History

From the Back Cover

This book is a richly detailed examination of social interaction in the city of Chihuahua, a major silver mining center of colonial Mexico. Founded at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the city attracted people from all over New Spain, all summoned "by the voices of the mines of Chihuahua." The author shows how abstract relationships of class, political subordination, ethnicity, and gender took concrete form in the daily life of the diverse people of Chihuahua.
Reviews
"Martin's well-written social history . . . is modest in length, but it is packed with insights and observations that will be useful both to scholars interested in other Mexican regions and to those who study early modern social relations in other settings. . . . Immensely informative and interesting . . . this rich volume will undoubtedly be influential for years to come."
--American Historical Review
"Extremely readable and impressively researched . . . this is an ambitious and deeply analytical study. . . . Among the work's many virtues are the clarity and unpretentiousness of its style, its insightfulness (without over-theorizing), and its sensitivity to its sources."
--Latin American Studies
"Martin has given us a fine study of an eighteenth-century Mexican mining town. It is a work of painstaking scholarship, soft-spoken but with hard theoretical edges, written with clarity, economy, and grace."
--Canadian Journal of History

Review Quotes

"This extremely important study makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the social history of colonial Mexico. The author's focus on the social, cultural, and political dynamics of Chihuahua provides a superb lens through which to view social interaction on a daily basis among individuals distinguished by their gender, class, race, and occupation. The work also engages several wider issues ranging from the regional history of Mexico, to the social history of a community, to questions of hegemony, power, and governance in a peripheral area."--Susan Deans-Smith, University of Texas at Austin

"Extremely readable and impressively researched . . . this is an ambitious and deeply analytical study. . . . Among the work's many virtues are the clarity and unpretentiousness of its style, its insightfulness (without over-theorizing), and its sensitivity to its sources."--Latin American Studies

"Martin has given us a fine study of an eighteenth-century Mexican mining town. It is a work of painstaking sholarship, soft-spoken but with hard theoretical edges, written with clarity, economy, and grace."--Canadian Journal of History

"Martin's well-written social history . . . is packed with insights and observations that will be useful both to scholars interested in other Mexican regions and to those who study early modern social relations in other settings. . . . Immensely informative and interesting . . . this rich volume will undoubtedly be influential for years to come."--American Historical Review

About the Author

Cheryl English Martin is Professor of History at the University of Texas at El Paso.