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The Comparative Focus in Latin American History*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Eugene D. Genovese
Eugene D. Genovese*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Rochester
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Extract

There are at least two reasons for United States and Latin American historians to bring their work together in a comparative thesis, the first being the need to maximize control of generalizations, and the second being the need to write the history of the social process by which a single world community has been developing since the sixteenth century. Recently, considerable progress with the first task has been made in the study of slavery and race relations, but little progress can yet be reported with the second.

One result of the work on slavery and race relations ought to warn and encourage us. Without entering here into a discussion of the specific points of view advanced by Frank Tannenbaum, Marvin Harris, Sidney Mintz, Stanley Elkins, Gilberto Freyre, Herbert Klein, and so many others, it could be demonstrated that the comparisons of slavery in the United States, South America, and the Caribbean have so far proven enormously important in clarifying issues and stimulating new research and yet have failed to yield some of the most sought-after generalizations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , July 1970 , pp. 317 - 327
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1970

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Footnotes

*

Paper read to the annual luncheon meeting of the Conference on Latin American History at the American Historical Association, 28 December 1969, Washington, D.C.

References

1 For a collection of leading points of view on slavery in the Americas, with selections from these and other authors and appropriate bibliography, see Foner, Laura and Genovese, Eugene D., eds., Slavery in The New World: A Reader in Comparative History (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1969).Google Scholar

2 van den Berghe, Pierre L., Race and Racism: A Comparative Perspective (New York: Wiley, 1967).Google Scholar

3 Cf., e.g., Cardoso, Fernando Henrique and Ianni, Octavio, Côr e mobilidade social en Florianópolis (São Paulo: Editora Difusão da cultura, 1960).Google Scholar

4 Klein, Herbert S., Slavery in The Americas: A Comparative Study of Cuba and Virginia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967).Google Scholar

5 Corwin, Arthur, Spain and the Abolition of Slavery in Cuba 1817-1886 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967).Google Scholar

Franklin W. Knight, Cuban Slave Society on The Eve of Abolition (forthcoming); Ely, Roland T., Cuando reinaba su majestad el azúcar (Buenos Aires: Editora Sudamericana)Google Scholar; Manuel Moreno Fraginals, El Ingenio (Havana, 1963).

6 Womack, John, Zapata and The Mexican Revolution (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969).Google Scholar

7 Hanke, Lewis, ed., Do The Americas Have a Common History? (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962).Google Scholar

8 Morse, Richard, “The Heritage of Latin America” in Hartz, Louis, ed., The Founding of New Societies (New York: Harcourt Brace and World, 1964), pp. 123–177.Google Scholar

9 See Slave and Citizen (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947).

10 The views of Whitaker and Mosk may be found in brief form in Hanke, Do The Americas Have a Common History?

11 The World the Slaveholders Made (New York: Pantheon, 1969).

12 Frank, Andre Gunder, Capitalism and Under-Development in Latin America (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1967).Google Scholar