In Bandits and Liberals, Rebels and Saints Alan Knight offers a distinct perspective on several overarching themes in Latin American history, spanning approximately two centuries, from 1800 to 2000. Knight’s approach is ambitious and comparative—sometimes ranging beyond Latin America and combining relevant social theory with robust empirical detail. He tries to offer answers to big questions while challenging alternative answers and approaches, including several recently fashionable ones.
While the individual essays and the book as a whole are roughly chronological, the approach is essentially thematic, with chapters devoted to major contentious themes in Latin American history across two centuries: the sociopolitical roots and impact of banditry; the character and evolution of liberalism; religious conflict; the divergent historical trajectories of Peru and Mexico; the nature of informal empire and internal colonialism; and the region’s revolutionary history—viewed through the twin prisms of British perceptions and comparative global history.
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Back to Banditry
2. Toward an Explanation of Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Latin America
3. Religion and Conflict in Latin America, 1820–1930
4. The Little Divergence: Peru and Mexico Compared, 1780–1940
5. Informal Empire and Internal Colonialism in Latin America, 1820–1930
6. Hovering Dwarf: Britain and Latin American Revolutions in the Twentieth Century
7. Workers and Peasants, Liberals and Jacobins: The Mexican Revolution in Comparative Global Perspective
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
