The Global Spanish Empire

The Global Spanish Empire: Five Hundred of Place Making and Pluralism (Christine Beaule and John G. Douglass, eds.) is unique as a collected volume, both for the geographical range of its subject matter and the diverse backgrounds of its contributors. Chapters in the collection examine spaces in Oceania, Africa, and North and South America; their authors include archaeologists, anthropologists, literary scholars, historians, and art historians. This broad range makes for an ambitious project, one that effectively demonstrates the range and variation of Spanish colonialism. Beyond this achievement, however, the common project is somewhat nebulous, leaving the reader feeling as if she is circling around the volume’s stated themes rather than consistently addressing them from multiple angles. As laid out by Beaule and Douglass in the introductory remarks, The Global Spanish Empire is organized around the dual concepts of place making and pluralism. Unfortunately, nowhere in the collection are these...

Archaeology · Colonialism · Empire · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Feeling · Pluralism (philosophy) · Sociology · Anthropology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · History · Latin American history and culture · Philosophy