Author Description

Alan Knight offers a plea, a justification, and a tour d'horizon of the history of Latin America. He notes the old stereotypes which affected European, especially English, perceptions of the Americas, and which, lingering long after colonialism, remain apparent even in 'informed' circles today. By way of contrast - and with an eye to Eurocentric students of history - he maps the recent advance of the Latin American historiographical frontier, which has involved the use of new methodologies to explore major themes - slavery, ethnicity, gender, popular protest, collective mentality - which are of common comparative interest to the profession. Latin American history therefore has a legitimate place among the major historiographical traditions. Fashionable contemporary questions - concerning democratization, the 'new' social movements, and neoliberal economic projects - can be rationally discussed only with due regard to historical context. Professor Knight concludes the history of the periphery should not remain purely peripheral.