Building on recent transatlantic and postcolonial approaches to Spain's Enlightenment that have focused mostly on historiographical writings and official discou

How did literary discourse about empire contribute to discussions about the implications of modernity and progress in eighteenth-century Spain? Writing the Amer

This book is about Enlightenment culture in Spanish America before Independence—in short, there where, according to Hegel, one would least expect to find it.

"Recovers the themes, intent, and legacy of 18th century Spanish American literature that often are lost in the broader scholarship of Latin American literature

An Economist Book of the Year, 2001. In the 18th century, a debate ensued over the French naturalist Buffon’s contention that the New World was in fact geolog