Power and Violence in the Colonial City: Oruro from the Mining Renaissance to the Rebellion of Tupac Amaru (1740-1782): 76 (Cambridge Latin American Studies, Series Number 76) - Softcover

"Given the importance of the book's subject, the author's knowledge of much local detail and a helpful documentary appendix, specialists on the history of late colonial mining and politics in the Andes will find this work useful..." Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"This is an excellently translated and well-edited volume....The maps, figures, and tables are all clear and concise, and provide a good supplement to the text....an important contribution to Andean mining, political, and resistance history, and should be included in any serious library on Latin America." H-Net Book Review

"Power and Violence provides and excellent examination of conflict over city government and its early chapters usefully complement the political analysis in Jacques A. Barbier's Reform and Politics in Bourbon Chile, 1755-1796 (1980). The vivid narrative and thoughtful analysis of the 1781 uprising in Oruro is also notable." The Americas

"...a valuable contribution to our understanding of Spanish society in Peru, of the vicissitudes of Andean mining, and of the convoluted social currents in a colonial uprising that some experts believe may have taken the lives of more than 100,000 Indians and settlers." Michael F. Brown, American Anthropologist

"...interesting, important....Cornblit's study is important..." Susan Migden Socolow, American Historical review

This book examines the characteristics of political power in the cities of the colonial Spanish Empire between the 1740s and 1780s, based on a detailed study of the mining city of Oruro in Alto Peru (present-day Bolivia). Special emphasis is given to the specific forms of the exercise of power, assessing in particular the workings of the judicial system and the material opportunities that were open to different bureaucratic officials. Towards the end of this period, the analysis focuses on the Indian uprisings of the 1780s (the rebellions of Tupac Amaru) and the reasons which led to the alliances or confrontations between the actors of the distinct bands, either white or Indian.