State Formation in the Liberal Era offers a nuanced exploration of the uneven nature of nation making and economic development in Peru and Mexico. Zeroing in on the period from 1850 to 1950, the book compares and contrasts the radically different paths of development pursued by these two countries.

Mexico and Peru are widely regarded as two great centers of Latin American civilization. In State Formation in the Liberal Era, a diverse group of historians and anthropologists from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Latin America compare how the two countries advanced claims of statehood from the dawning of the age of global liberal capitalism to the onset of the Cold War. Chapters cover themes ranging from foreign banks to road building and labor relations. The introductions serve as an original interpretation of Peru’s and Mexico’s modern histories from a comparative perspective.

Focusing on the tensions between disparate circuits of capital, claims of statehood, and the contested nature of citizenship, the volume spans disciplinary and geographic boundaries. It reveals how the presence (or absence) of U.S. influence shaped Latin American history and also challenges notions of Mexico’s revolutionary exceptionality. The book offers a new template for ethnographically informed comparative history of nation building in Latin America.
 

Ben Fallaw is a professor of Latin American studies at Colby College. He is the author or editor of five books, including Cárdenas Compromised: The Failure of Reform in Yucatán and Religion and State Formation in Postrevolutionary Mexico. 

David Nugent is a professor of anthropology at Emory University. He is the author or editor of five books, including The Encrypted State: Delusion and Displacement in Northern Peru.

 “This is a welcome addition to the literature on state and nation formation. It compares and contrasts how two similarly configured countries, Peru and Mexico, tried various government experiments over the course of a century to form national communities by extending citizenship to the excluded masses while integrating their national economies into the globalizing economy. The result is a detailed, nuanced, and original collection by a group of top-drawer scholars that will advance our understanding of early nation building in Latin America.”—Peter Klarén, author of Peru: Society and Nationhood in the Andes

“State Formation in the Liberal Era is an exceptionally nuanced exploration of the uneven nature of nation making and economic development in Peru and Mexico from 1850 to 1950. It is a compelling account that transforms our understanding of postcolonial Latin America—of how competing and often contradictory forces simultaneously produced and tore new nations apart.”—Steve Striffler, author of In the Shadows of State and Capital: United Fruit, Popular Struggle, and Agrarian Restructuring in Ecuador, 1900–1995

“The book is…recommendable as a concise yet detailed overview of the history of Mexico and Peru from 1850-1950, and the section introductions would serve well for short background readings in university courses.”—Andrea Moerer, The Middle Ground Journal
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