This volume includes seven essays on the development of the press and the significance of political oratory in nineteenth-century Latin America. The authors discuss developments in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile and Agentina, while paying attention to influences and comparisons with the United States and Europe. Four essays concentrate on the periodical press and the wider spectrum of print, and three others on oratory, but all posit and explore a significant overlap between written and oral cultures. The findings and theoretical issues discussed in this volume provide fresh evidence on largely unknown areas of nineteenth-century history and invite further research on a rich new topic of study. Contributors include: Charles A. Hale, University of Iowa; Rebecca Earle, University of Warwick; Carmen McEvoy, University of the South, Sewanee; Carlos Malamud, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Spain; Eduardo Posada-Carbo, University of Warwick; Sol Serrano, Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile; Douglass Sullivan Gonzalez, University of Mississippi.

The five papers presented in this volume discuss various aspects of the politics of Latin America during the nineteenth century. Although the scope of the essays is wide - including topics such as civil wars, political parties and the use of travel narratives for partisan purposes - the overriding concern is with nationalism and the role of the state.