Peter Bakewell, A history of Latin America: Empires and sequels 1450–1930, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers, 1997, 520pp.

Abstract

This is the first volume published in a series called the Blackwell History of the World, with fifteen other titles listed in preparation. Bakewell tells us that he is not writing for his professional colleagues; nor is he writing with a particular theory of history in mind. He is a story-teller, and his firm focus is on telling the story of encounter between Spaniards and Portuguese and the peoples and environment of the New World to students of history who have not heard it before. It is the experience of communicating this story to undergraduates for twenty years, he tells us, that has shaped the telling, guiding his inclusions and omissions, his style, his emphases.