Matthew Restall est un historien de l'Amérique latine coloniale, axé sur l'ethnohistoire et les dynamiques complexes de conquête, de colonisation et de la diaspora africaine. Son érudition explore les impacts culturels et sociaux de ces processus historiques, offrant une compréhension nuancée des interactions entre diverses populations. Le travail de Restall éclaire les héritages durables de l'ère coloniale et la formation des Amériques.
The Black Middle is the first book-length study of the interaction of black slaves and other people of African descent with Mayas and Spaniards in the Spanish colonial province of Yucatan (southern Mexico).
Focusing on the duality of colonial and national periods, this book offers a balanced perspective on Latin America's intricate history. By examining key patterns and trends across regions such as the Greater Caribbean, Mexico, the Andes, and Brazil, it highlights the early onset of colonialism and the delayed independence. The regional approach allows for a deeper understanding of the complex historical narrative, making it accessible to readers unfamiliar with the subject.
Among the magnificent gems and jewels left behind by the great Islamic empires, emeralds stand out for their size and prominence. This title presents the story of trade and also of transformations - how members of profoundly different societies at opposite ends of the globe assigned value to a few thousand pounds of imperfectly shiny green rocks.
This vividly written and authoritative book offers an updated account of the activities of the best-known conquistadors and explorers, including Columbus, Cortes, and Pizarro, and reveals the true stories behind the key events in the history of the Americas.
In 1545, a native Andean prospector hit pay dirt on a desolate red mountain in highland Bolivia. There followed the world's greatest silver bonanza, making the Cerro Rico or "Rich Hill" and the Imperial Villa of Potosí instant legends, famous from Istanbul to Beijing. The Cerro Rico alone provided over half of the world's silver for a century, and even in decline, it remained the single richest source on earth. Potosí is the first interpretive history of the fabled mining city’s rise and fall. It tells the story of global economic transformation and the environmental and social impact of rampant colonial exploitation from Potosí’s startling emergence in the 16th century to its collapse in the 19th. Throughout, Kris Lane’s invigorating narrative offers rare details of this thriving city and its promise of prosperity. A new world of native workers, market women, African slaves, and other ordinary residents who lived alongside the elite merchants, refinery owners, wealthy widows, and crown officials, emerge in lively, riveting stories from the original sources. An engrossing depiction of excess and devastation, Potosí reveals the relentless human tradition in boom times and bust.
This Very Short Introduction examines the Spanish conquistadors who invaded the Americas in the sixteenth century, as well as the Native American Kingdoms they invaded.
Adolf Hitler's obsession with art not only fueled his vision of a purified Nazi state--it was the core of his fascist ideology. Its aftermath lives on to this day.Nazism ascended by brute force and by cultural tyranny. Weimar Germany was a society in turmoil, and Hitler's rise was achieved not only by harnessing the military but also by restricting artistic expression. Hitler, an artist himself, promised the dejected citizens of postwar Germany a purified Reich, purged of "degenerate" influences.When Hitler came to power in 1933, he removed so-called "degenerate" art from German society and promoted artists whom he considered the embodiment of the "Aryan ideal." Artists who had produced challenging and provocative work fled the country. Curators and art dealers organized their stock. Thousands of great artworks disappeared--and only a fraction of them were rediscovered after World War II.In 2013, the German government confiscated roughly 1,300 works by Henri Matisse, George Grosz, Claude Monet, and other masters from the apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt, the reclusive son of one of Hitler's primary art dealers. For two years, the government kept the discovery a secret. In Hitler's Last Hostages , Mary M. Lane reveals the fate of those works and tells the definitive story of art in the Third Reich and Germany's ongoing struggle to right the wrongs of the past.
The Maya have lived in parts of Mexico and Central America for thousands of years, forging one of the greatest societies in the history of the Americas -- indeed, of humankind. Long before European contact, Mayas built spectacular cities, created complex agricultural systems, mastered the visual arts, and developed a sophisticated writing system that recorded calendrical, mathematical, and astronomical knowledge. Yet there was never a Maya empire or unified state, only numerous, evolving ethnicities speaking dozens of distinct Mayan languages. So how did "the Maya" come to be invented and how have they persisted to this day? In this Very Short Introduction, Matthew Restall and Amara Solari reveal the triumphs and tribulations of Maya culture and history from ancient to colonial to modern times. -- From publisher's description
Firsthand accounts from Maya nobles reveal a complex narrative of the conquest, highlighting that the conquistadors included both Spaniards and Mayas. This unique perspective illustrates how the Maya adapted their governance and society in response to Spanish colonization, portraying it as part of a long history of resilience and survival. The book sheds light on previously untranslated texts, offering a fresh understanding of this pivotal period in Maya history.
Presents the story of how Latin American civilization emerged from the encounter of three great civilizations in the sixteenth century.