Workshop of Revolution: Plebeian Buenos Aires and the Atlantic World, 1776-1810
Lyman L Johnson
2011, Duke University Press
410 pages, plates
LABOURERS and artisans were at the forefront of the defence of Buenos Aires against British imperialism in 1806-07 and would again come to the fore in the revolutionary junta of May 1810, which sparked the Argentine war of independence. In this comprehensive work of historical scholarship, Lyman Johnson provides detailed insights inhto the economic and political forces that motivated the city’s workers – and slaves – to take its fate into their hands. Johnson paints a detailed picture of their lives and analyses the demographic, social and racial dynamics that compelled many of them to joint the militias that defended, and later laid claim to, the city. – EC
