The Redemptive Work: Railway and Nation in Ecuador, 1895-1930
Author(s): Kim A. Clark (Author)
- Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
- Publication Date: 1 Jan. 1998
- Language: English
- Print length: 244 pages
- ISBN-10: 0842026746
- ISBN-13: 9780842026741
Book Description
A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book! Professor Kim Clark explores a time period and country for which little has been published in English. By studying the dimensions of politics and culture as one, Professor Clark argues that the local railroad case served as a demonstration of some of the problems that were most important during the liberal period. At the turn of the century, diverse political, economic, and social conditions divided Ecuador. During the construction of the Guayaquil-Quito Railway, the people of Ecuador faced the challenge of working together. The Redemptive Work: Railway and Nation in Ecuador, 1895D1930 examines local, regional, and national perspectives on the building of the railway and analyzes the contradictory processes of national incorporation. Rather than examining the formation of Ecuador’s national identity, Professor Clark analyzes the methods of two groups working on the same project but with opposing goals. The elite landowners of the highlands were concerned with the transportation of their agricultural products to the coast, while the agro-export elite of the coast were more interested in forming a labor market. Because the underlying objectives were contradictory, only a partial consensus was reached on the nature of national development. This tense agreement channeled the conflicting opinions but did not eliminate them. The Redemptive Work is the first text to deal with these complex issues in Ecuador’s history. The Redemptive Work is useful for undergraduate and graduate courses in Latin American history, social history, anthropology, political science, and nation and state formation.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Well-researched, richly documented, and easy to read. ― CHOICE
Professor Clark considers both the political and cultural aspects of this phase of Ecuadorian history, resulting in a text that will be useful for both undergraduate and graduate students of Latin American studies and nation and state formation. ―
British Bulletin of Publications on Latin America, the Caribbean, Portugal and Spain
This is an important addition to scholarly work on the liberal period in Ecuador. Clark has opened new doors into the impact of the Guayaquil-Quito Railway on the political economy of Ecuador. Her research of economic records, court reports, political tracts, municipal documents, and a plethora of other primary material as well as secondary sources is meticulous. . . This book is essential for the Ecuadorinist and should prove of general interest to scholars of the liberal era and railroad development in Latin America. ―
H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online
There is no other monograph in English which presents such a compact, balanced, and comprehensive view of Ecuador’s Liberal era. ―
Journal of Latin American Studies
About the Author
A. Kim Clark is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Western Ontario.
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