Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America - (Human Tradition Around the World) 2nd Edition by Kenneth J Andrien (Paperback)

About the Book

The Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America is an anthology of stories of largely ordinary individuals struggling to forge a life during the unstable colonial period in Latin America. Now fully updated with new and revised essays, the book is carefully balanced among countri...

Book Synopsis

The Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America is an anthology of stories of largely ordinary individuals struggling to forge a life during the unstable colonial period in Latin America. These mini-biographies vividly show the tensions that emerged when the political, social, religious, and economic ideals of the Spanish and Portuguese colonial regimes and the Roman Catholic Church conflicted with the realities of daily living in the Americas.

Now fully updated with new and revised essays, the book is carefully balanced among countries and ethnicities. Within an overall theme of social order and disorder in a colonial setting, the stories bring to life issues of gender; race and ethnicity; conflicts over religious orthodoxy; and crime, violence, and rebellion. Written by leading scholars, the essays are specifically designed to be readable and interesting. Ideal for the Latin American history survey and for courses on colonial Latin American history, this fresh and human text will engage as well as inform students.

Contributions by: Rolena Adorno, Kenneth J. Andrien, Christiana Borchart de Moreno, Joan Bristol, Noble David Cook, Marcela Echeverri, Lyman L. Johnson, Mary Karasch, Alida C. Metcalf, Kenneth Mills, Muriel S. Nazzari, Ana María Presta, Susan E. Ramírez, Matthew Restall, Zeb Tortorici, Camilla Townsend, Ann Twinam, and Nancy E. van Deusen.

Review Quotes

Aimed at student readers, these biographical vignettes bring colonial Latin American history to life. Each makes a superb starting point for analyzing and discussing how colonialism affected the lives of real people.


Kenneth Andrien proves himself a skillful editor who knows what works in the classroom. This is an excellent supplementary reading.


Recommended for classroom use. This textbook gets away from the dominant presentation of topics and, instead, focuses on biographical profiles of people and their times.


The Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America . . . will enrich the understanding of Latin American culture of a student at just about any level.


The Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America is full of fascinating stories. It is a celebration of historians' ability to research the lives of the common folk whose portraits never reach the walls of museums. These vivid narratives about real people make the great themes of colonial Latin American history more immediate and accessible to students.


This is a wonderful book, rich with the personal histories of everyday colonial people masterfully set within the context of time and place. These engrossing portraits invite the reader to examine how men and women--indigenous people, Europeans and those of African descent, slave and free, merchants, officers, soldiers, writers, chieftains (kurakas) and mystics--challenged their assigned roles within the colonial social hierarchy.


This wonderful book brings to life the complex history of colonial Latin America in ways that traditional textbooks cannot. Students will better identify with everyday life in the colonies through the rich accounts of the experiences of both the ordinary and extraordinary individuals presented in this work. It will undoubtedly enhance lectures and spark lively discussions. A welcome addition!

About the Author

Kenneth J. Andrien holds the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Chair in History at Southern Methodist University.