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Review of The Tupac Amaru Rebellion, by Heather Roller

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Charles F. Walker’s book is a vivid narrative history of the Tupac Amaru Rebellion (1780–82), which profoundly shook, but did not ultimately topple, the foundations of Spanish rule in the Andes. In its ability to make sense of an extremely complex, multifaceted movement without losing the thread of the larger story, The Tupac Amaru Rebellion can be compared with Laurent Dubois’s narrative history of the Haitian Revolution, Avengers of the New World (2004). Like Dubois, Walker skillfully analyzes the perspectives and motivations—as well as the shortcomings—of the movement’s principal leaders, while also considering what led indigenous people to join en masse.

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Jeremy Mumford’s review of “Revolution in the Andes” and “The Tupac Amaru Rebellion”

Serulnikov, Sergio. Revolution in the Andes. The Age of Tupac Amaru. Translated by David Frye (North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2013). Walker, Charles. The Tupac Amaru Rebellion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014). The Tupac Amaru and Katarista rebellions were a … Continue reading