Customer Reviews

Barbaros: Spaniards and Their Savages in the Age of Enlightenment (The Lamar Series in Western History)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although this is a masterly piece of scholastic writing by perhaps the pre-eminent historian of Spanish colonialism in the Americas, it is also a vivid read for the non-scholar (such as myself). If you believe that the Spanish relationship to the native people in their American colonies was a consistently brutal and usurious one, this book will give you an appreciation of how highly varied and sometimes very moral (in the morality of the day), it actually was, especially toward the end.

I guess this is what passes for history these days. Make sure you pay homage to every point of view at every time and at every place, and never mind about organization. There's no doubt that Weber knows his subject, but come on, it's like he took all his notecards from a lifetime of research, shuffled them a few times, dropped them on the floor, and then wrote this book in the order that he picked them up. This book is all over the map, both figuratively and literally. I understand that all historical narrative is necessarily flawed, by point of view, cultural bias, etc., but hey, give me credit for having the intelligence to uncover these flaws myself. A work like this demands structure, which unfortunately this book does not have. I rate this book three stars only because there is a wealth of information in here. But be prepared to dig!