“This collection makes clear, through well-researched case studies and specific examples, that the law and legal institutions have had a more important role in maintaining the social order and the regulation of contention in Latin American history than previously revealed. As such, it will have a crucial impact on this and other fields.”--Thomas H. Holloway, University of California, Davis “This volume marks a breakthrough in the historical study of criminality, social deviance, punishment, and legal systems in Latin America. The contributions are empirically deep, interestingly theorized, and brought together by a very sophisticated introductory essay. The essays immerse us in such vital themes as modernization and the law, the medicalization of crime and deviance, and the modes by which ordinary people faced the state and its institutions-in the broad issue of legal culture, in other words.”-Eric Van Young, University of California, San Diego "A very useful introduction. . . . This volume offers many insights into comparative histories with other formative legal orders. . .. A real milestone for historians wanting to take legal institutions seriously without portraying them in some of the rigid ways they once were." - Jeremy Adelman (Journal of Latin American Studies) "Fascinating. . . . Valuable for Latin Americanists precisely because the editors and authors succeed in making connections across time and space, and it is an important resource for nonspecialists looking for comparative examples and new perspectives to bring to their studies." - Joan Bristol (Journal of Social History) "This volume's primary contribution is . . . a broadly comparative perspective on the ascendance of 'modernizing' liberal ideologies. Perhaps most importantly, these essays expose the disunity and incompleteness of Latin America's liberal project, as well as the marked divergence between the political liberalism of consolidating Latin American and the market liberalism of the United States and Britain." - Jocelyn Olcott (EIAL)