178 REVIEWS

BOLIVIA
The Bolivia Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Edited by Sinclair Thomson, Rossana
Barragán, Xavier Albó, Seemin Qayum, and Mark Goodale. Durham: Duke
University Press, 2018. 87 illustrations, 10 in color. Pp. 719. $129.95 cloth; 34.95
paper.
doi:10.1017/tam.2019.135

Duke University Press offers yet another book in the series that lends itself to teaching
about Latin America through case studies of specific countries. The Bolivia volume is
comprised of 12 chapters, arranged in chronological order for the colonial period and
in mainly thematic order for much of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century coverage.
This is a carefully curated book of primary sources, with a few secondary source
exceptions. Emphasizing primary source excerpts enhances the usefulness of the volume
for the classroom. Importantly, this represents the first time that many of these excerpts
have been made available in English.

The table of contents represents a creative and intentional approach: to offer a variety of
genres, authors, and voices. Notably, the early sections decidedly downplay “Spanish
conquest,” instead grouping the Inca state along with the Spanish in a section on
conquest, which reframes traditional narratives of the 1500s. In keeping with this aim,
the volume includes throughout the indigenous and non-elite, through oral tradition as
well as indigenous political declarations. These are balanced with colonial and elite
voices such as Spanish chroniclers and a twentieth-century United Nations report.
Excerpts focused on the highlands are balanced with those from the Amazonian region
and Santa Cruz.

The overall message afforded readers here is that Bolivia’s history and culture can be read
from a pluralistic set of voices across time and space. This book proves that the issue was
not that these voices were nonexistent but rather that they had not been privileged
sufficiently. Elite voices do dominate Chapter 5, “Market Circuits and Enclave
Extraction,” mainly focused on the nineteenth century. All other chapters are
roughly equal in terms of indigenous and non-elite coverage, with the best coverage of
women present in the second half of the volume. Thus, this critical collection
decolonizes narratives of Bolivian history and acknowledges its cultural and
geographical diversity.

The remarkable variety of genres represented in the book is likely a product of the editors’
intention to represent a plurality of voices. Students can learn about colonial gender norms
in Bolivia through a father’s letter to his daughter on the eve of her wedding. Newspaper
and radio advertisements provide context for the impact of neoliberalism. Lyrics of
Aymara hip-hop shed light on the integration of art and politics in contemporary
indigenous culture. These unique sources are joined by oral tradition and oral histories,
 REVIEWS 179

political speeches and essays, poems and novels, and memoirs and diaries. The selection of
sources does justice to the “history, culture, politics” subtitle of the volume and makes for a
dynamic read.

The approach to themes is equally innovative. For example, in Chapter 8, titled

“Revolutionary Currents,” the focus is much more complex than merely 1952. Its
chronological span of sources ranges from a 1923 petition over property ownership by
caciques to 1969 critiques of the revolution’s failures by Sergio Almaraz Paz and Fausto
Reinaga. The events of 1952 are present as well, of course, with Juan Lechin’s ́ early
morning victory speech, a report by the then British ambassador, and a letter by a
young Che Guevara, an eyewitness.

Some minor elements of the collection deserve better integration. For example, the third
chapter offers specific coverage of Potosi.́ Given the significance of Potosi ́ in global history,
this preeminence makes sense. The chapter, however, also includes sources about the
Jesuits. The role of the Jesuits in Bolivia is a theme of utmost importance; however,
here it feels tacked on, at the end of a chapter titled “The Rich Mountain.” Likewise,
the reader could use more analytical guidance with the eight beautiful color plates.

English-speaking audiences now have a rich resource for in-depth study of Bolivia. It is the
perfect book for courses on Andean history and Latin America, as well as hemispheric
courses on power, culture, politics, and economy in the Americas. Overall, this book is
indispensable for university and college libraries. To put it simply, there is no
comparable volume.

Davidson College JANE MANGAN

Davidson, North Carolina
jamangan@davidson.edu

BRAZIL
Before Brasília:. Frontier Life in Central Brazil. By Mary Karasch. Albuquerque: University
of New Mexico Press, 2016. Pp. xxiv, 430. Illustrations. Glossary. Notes.
Bibliography. Index. $65.00 cloth.
doi:10.1017/tam.2019.136

Historian Mary Karasch, author of the award-winning Slave Life in Rio de Janeiro, has
published a new book on the history of central Brazil that promises to be as influential
as her first work. It is the result of a decades-long effort to dig deeper into the archives
and histories of central Brazil from the eighteenth century to the early nineteenth
century. Divided into ten chapters and thoroughly supported by appendixes
synthesizing historical demographic data, this book not only relies heavily on archival
documentation and travel accounts but also makes use of other types of sources such as