Ida Altman is professor emerita of history at the University of Florida.
"Life and Society in the Early Spanish Caribbean is the culmination
of Ida Altman's writing career as a historian. . . . The
interconnectedness of social, cultural, and economic patterns
emerging from the first fifty years of European exploration in the
region are the focus of this book. Altman's intent is to introduce
and familiarize the Anglo world with the Spanish Caribbean. . . .
Altman's work offers a unique revisionist look at how the Spanish
Caribbean was more diverse, dynamic, and socioeconomically
adaptable than given credit for within the correlating
historiography."--Journal of American History
"In Life and Society in the Early Spanish Caribbean: The Greater
Antilles, 1493-1550, Ida Altman offers a compass and a chart to
navigate that complex, contradictory, and dynamic space and time. .
. . Life and Society in the Early Spanish Caribbean should be
mandatory reading for those interested in the Spanish colonization
of America and the early colonial period. It is the most reliable
introduction to early Caribbean history that scholars, students,
and the general public have long been waiting for."--American
Historical Review
"Joining a recent burst of scholarship on the early Spanish
Caribbean . . . Life and Society in the Early Spanish Caribbean
stands apart for its focus on the Spanish settlers on the islands.
. . . [It] is an impressive achievement in meticulous archival
research that will bring the complexity of early Spanish society in
the Americas to the attention of a wider audience. Historians of
gender will value Altman's attention to the lives of Caribbean
women, while historians of Spanish colonialism will appreciate the
book's precise study of political and urban development in the
Greater Antilles. Finally, the book will be an invaluable resource
to Caribbean scholars looking to understand the history of the
region in the early sixteenth century on a deeply human
scale."--Hispanic American Historical Review
"Ida Altman gives us a different history of the Greater Antilles in
the first half of the sixteenth century. On the basis of a
substantial immersion in the primary sources and ... the existing
literature, the narratives of discovery and conquest and the
omnipresent figure of Columbus yield here to the construction of a
deep and vivid account, inhabited by people who created a new and
complex society, matrix of the Spanish colonial world in America.
Taking a creative approach, in which can be distinguished the
methods of micro-history and the history of daily life, and
incorporating as well the archaeological evidence, a detailed and
vibrant picture of the human universe that emerged from the
conquest is constructed.... In this world physical, spiritual, and
sexual violence not only affected the conquered Indians and
enslaved Africans but marked the everyday life and relationships of
the colonizers as well. At the same time it also produced extensive
ethnic mixing and left space for expressions of connection that
reflect the diversity of individual attitudes and the importance of
family.... Altman's book... offers us a humanized history, peopled
by diverse, controversial actors."-- "Roberto Valcárcel Rojas,
author of Archaeology of Early Colonial Interaction at El Chorro de
Maíta, Cuba"
"Engaging deeply and critically with archival sources,
archaeological studies and the Spanish-language historiography,
Altman's landmark study offers the first detailed look at the
structures of everyday life for the inhabitants of the early
Spanish Caribbean. Her attention to Black and Indigenous voices,
the experiences of women, and her treatment of themes including
violence, coercion, disease, and mestizaje during this dynamic,
formative period make Life and Society in the Early Spanish
Caribbean an obligatory point of reference and an essential model
for students of the sixteenth-century Atlantic world."-- "David
Wheat, author of Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean,
1570-1640"
"From one of the leading scholars of the new wave of studies of the
early modern Caribbean, Life and Society in the Early Spanish
Caribbean is a tour de force for anyone interested in understanding
the challenges and opportunities of the decades following the
arrival of Spaniards to the Caribbean. Altman offers as complete a
picture as possible of what life was like for the native
inhabitants of the Caribbean, the African and European newcomers,
and their indigenous-African-European descendants, who ruled and
were ruled upon, worked, reproduced, survived, thrived, and died in
the dangerous, cruel, and complex world of the Greater Antilles in
the half-century following the irruption of Spaniards on the
islands. Carefully plowing through records that intentionally
silence the voices and experiences of Indigenous and Black people,
Altman casts a light on the shadows to which non-Spaniards have
been relegated by a skewed historical record, showing, among other
things, that in the early Spanish Caribbean the appearance of
unchallenged European dominance was deceptive. Altman's frankness
about the insurmountable obstacles the archives pose makes Life and
Society in the Early Spanish Caribbean key to understanding how we
know what we know, why what we know is, at best, an incomplete
picture, and why the full picture may forever remain beyond our
reach."--Ernesto E. Bassi Arevalo, author of An Aqueous Territory:
Sailor Geographies and New Granada's Transimperial Greater
Caribbean World
"Ida Altman has done it again. With every monograph, she has
altered our perception of a topic, time-period, and region of the
Spanish American world--thereby gifting us a book that is mandatory
reading for scholars and students of the entire field. Life and
Society in the Early Spanish Caribbean is no exception. Her stated
aim is to 'introduce' us to the 'dangerous, cruel, and complicated
world' of Hispaniola, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica in the first
half of sixteenth century. But she achieves so much more than that,
revealing the grim humanity of unremitting warfare, slaving, and
colonialism; and bringing to life--as never before--the many and
mixed peoples of European, African, and Indigenous origins who
struggled to survive and make sense of this perilous new world."--
"Matthew Restall, author of The Maya World, The Black Middle, and
Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest"
"Ida Altman's account of the early Spanish Caribbean is so detailed
and vivid that readers will wonder if she is a time-traveler.
Drawing on extraordinary archival research and a deep command of
the secondary literature, Altman shines light on the competing
interests and actors that gave shape to this earliest arena of
sustained Atlantic entanglement. The transformation of landscapes
and labor regimes, the constant and violent political wrangling
among secular and religious figures, and the stark inequalities
experienced by the islands' European, Indigenous and Black
inhabitants are brought to life. This book will be required reading
for all scholars of the period."-- "Molly A. Warsh, author of
American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492-1700"
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