The Redemptive Work: Railway and Nation in Ecuador, 1895-1930

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Rowman & Littlefield, 1998 - 244 Seiten
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, 1895-1930 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.
 

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Inhalt

Introduction The Political Economy and Culture of the Ecuadorian Nation and the GuayaquilQuito Railway
Historical Overview of the Ecuadorian Economy and Geography
13
The Railway the Reform of the Nation and the Discourse of Liberalism
39
Movement from the Perspective of the Coast Liberalism the Railway and the Labor Market
67
Movement from the Perspective of the Highlands The Politics of the Internal Market
97
The Contradictions of Redemption The Uneven Development of Alausí
125
Beyond the Reach of Liberal Discourse
179
Social Space and the Railway the Nation and the Liberal State
191
Bibliography
211
Index
227
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Autoren-Profil (1998)

A. Kim Clark is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Western Ontario.

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