(HIST-UA 750) Prof. Sinclair Thomson Meets: Wed 9:30-12:15 ...

Latin America and the Caribbean in the Age of Revolution
(HIST-UA 750)
Spring 2014

Prof. Sinclair Thomson Meets: Wed 9:30-12:15 am
History Department KJCC 324
New York University
53 Washington Square South, Rm. 414 ST’s office hours: Tu 2:00-4:00 pm
(212) 992-9626

The Age of Revolution in the Atlantic world from the late eighteenth century to the mid-
nineteenth century is traditionally associated with liberal, democratic, or bourgeois
political revolutions in France and the United States and with industrial revolution in
England. The purpose of this course is to revisit this period and rethink its geography
and political significance by looking at Latin America and the Caribbean.

Do the struggles and transformations in the Andes in the early 1780s, in Haiti at the turn
of the nineteenth century, and in Latin American Independence in the early nineteenth
century pertain to the history of the revolutionary Atlantic? Did Latin American and
Caribbean revolutionaries share the liberationist agendas and ideas of the revolutionary
age?

Reading canonical and recent work by historians as well as primary materials, we will
tackle some of the controversial issues of recent years and explore their implications for
an Atlantic understanding of the revolutionary age: Was there an Enlightenment culture
in Latin America? Were the revolutions driven by nationalisms or were nationalisms the
result of independence wars? Were the causes of independence movements structural
and internal to Latin America or rather contingent and derived from the political crisis in
the European metropolis? What roles did subaltern actors play in the revolutions? Were
the revolutions “democratic”? What was the role of slavery and anti-slavery in the
struggles for independence?

By considering the historical imagination surrounding the revolutionary experiences in
Latin America and the Caribbean, we will also reflect on the ways in which
contemporary politics and culture have shaped the memory of the revolutionary past.

The assignments for the class consist of one final paper and selected weekly comments
on the readings:
*The paper will be 12 to 15 pages in length. Topics are to be chosen by students, based
on common course materials or other materials determined in consultation with the
instructor.
*The weekly comments should be short (approx. 1-2 pages) and should accomplish two
tasks: demonstrate your understanding of the content of the reading and express your
reaction to it (e.g., what do you find most interesting, compelling, or disturbing?). You

are expected to turn in a total of six weekly comments during the semester, on weeks that
you choose. These comments will not be individually graded, but you will be expected to
turn them in as part of normal class participation. They will give students a chance to
absorb the readings in preparation for class, and to give the instructor an idea of
individual responses to the material we cover.
*Participation in class discussion is essential for a successful colloquium. You are
expected to attend all sessions, to have done the reading for the week, and to share your
thoughts about the material with your peers.
*For the final grade, the paper and weekly comments will count for half the grade,
while the quality of participation in class discussion will count also count for half.

Week 1 January 29 Introduction

We will review the course themes, objectives, and materials.

Week 2 February 5 Visions of the Age of Atlantic Revolution

Readings:

R.R. Palmer, The Age of Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and

America, 18760-1800 (Princeton University Press, 1959, 1964 ), vol. 1, pp. v-

ix, 3-24, 500-502; vol. 2, pp. v-ix, 509-546, 569-574.

Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848 (New American Library, 1962),

focus on pp. xv-xvi, 17-20, 35-54, 72-104.

Thomas Bender, “A Season of Revolutions: The United States, France, and Haiti.” In

Revolution! The Atlantic World Reborn. Ed. by T. Bender, L. Dubois, and R.

Rabinowitz (New York Historical Society, 2011), pp. 14-42.

Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History

(Boston: Beacon Press, 1995), pp. 70-107.

Week 3 February 12 Travelers in the Revolutionary Atlantic

Readings: ;

Karin Racine, Francisco de Mirando: A Transatlantic Life in the Age of Revolutition

Edgardo Pérez-Morales, TBA

Prof. Pérez-Morales will join us in class.

Week 4 February 19 Indigenous Worlds of Revolution I

Readings:

Sergio Serulnikov, Revolution in the Andes: The Age of Túpac Amaru

Selected primary sources from Ward Stavig and Ella Schmidt, eds., The Tupac Amaru

and Catarista Rebellions. An Anthology of Sources (Indianapolis: Hackett

2008).

Week 5 February 26 Indigenous Worlds of Revolution II

Readings:
Charles Walker, The Túpac Amaru Rebellion
Selected primary sources from Ward Stavig and Ella Schmidt, eds., The Tupac Amaru

and Catarista Rebellions. An Anthology of Sources (Indianapolis: Hackett 2008).

Week 6 March 5 Slavery and Revolution I

Readings:

C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo

Revolution, first half

Susan Buck-Morss, “Hegel and Haiti,” Critical Inquiry 26 (4): 821-865, 2000.

*This week please submit a statement of your prospective paper topic (up to 2 pages) and
pertinent sources.*

Week 7 March 12 Slavery and Revolution II

Readings:

C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo

Revolution, second half

Laurent Dubois, “An Enslaved Enlightenment: Rethinking Intellectual History in the

French Atlantic,” Social History 31 (1): 1-14, 2006.

Week 8 March 19 Spring break - No class

Week 9 March 26 The Caribbean Crucible I

Readings:

Alejo Carpentier, Explosion in a Cathedral

Week 10 April 2 The Caribbean Crucible II

Readings:

Emily Clark, The Strange History of the American Quadroon: Free Women of Color in

the Revolutionary Atlantic World

Week 11 April 9 The South American Crucible

Readings:

Herman Melville, “Benito Cereno”

Greg Grandin, The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New

World

Week 12 April 16 Revolution and Nationalism

John Lynch, The Spanish American Revolutions, 1808-1826 (2nd ed., Norton, 1986), pp.
1-37, 341-356.

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism (1st ed., 1983; revised ed., Verso, 1991), pp. 1-7, 47-65.

John Chasteen, Introduction to Sara Castro-Klarén and John Chasteen, eds., Beyond
Imagined Communities: Reading and Writing the Nation in Nineteenth-Century
Latin America (Woodrow Wilson Center, 2003), pp. ix-xxv.

Week 13 April 23 Royalism and Revolution

Readings:

Marcela Echeverri, “Popular Royalists, Empire, and Politics in Southwestern New

Granada, 1809-1819,” Hispanic American Historical Review 91 (2): 237-269.

We will view film: “Taita Boves” (2010)

Week 14 April 30 Republicanism and Revolution

Readings:

Simón Bolívar, The Bolivarian Revolution, with introduction by Hugo Chávez (New

York: Verso 2009), varioius primary sources.

Marixa Lasso, “Revisiting Independence Day: Afro-Colombian Politics and Creole

Patriot Narratives, Cartagena, 1809-1815,” in Mark Thurner and Andrés

Guerrero, eds., After Spanish Rule: Postcolonial Predicaments of the Americas

(Duke University Press, 2003).

Week 15 May 7 Conclusion

Presentations by students on their paper projects.