This is a welcome addition to the literature on state and nation formation. It compares and contrasts how two similarly configured countries, Peru and Mexico, tried various government experiments over the course of a century to form national communities by extending citizenship to the excluded masses while integrating their national economies into the globalizing economy. The result is a detailed, nuanced, and original collection by a group of top-drawer scholars that will advance our understanding of early nation building in Latin America.Peter Klarén, author of Peru: Society and Nationhood in the Andes
State Formation in the Liberal Era is an exceptionally nuanced exploration of the uneven nature of nation making and economic development in Peru and Mexico from 1850 to 1950. It is a compelling account that transforms our understanding of postcolonial Latin Americaof how competing and often contradictory forces simultaneously produced and tore new nations apart.Steve Striffler, author of In the Shadows of State and Capital: United Fruit, Popular Struggle, and Agrarian Restructuring in Ecuador, 19001995
The book isrecommendable as a concise yet detailed overview of the history of Mexico and Peru from 1850-1950, and the section introductions would serve well for short background readings in university courses.Andrea Moerer, The Middle Ground Journal
