Limits of Revolution Worker Citizens in a Bolivian Mining City
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Elena McGrath is an assistant professor of history and Latin American and Caribbean studies at Union College.Limits of Revolution Worker Citizens in a Bolivian Mining City
"Based on eighteen months of field work, oral interviews, and extensive archival research, Elena McGrath’s book opens a new window into Bolivia’s epic and everyday struggles over the meanings and boundaries of "worker citizenship" for male mine workers, women, their families, and their communities during the long MNR revolution (1952–1964) and beyond. The author makes skillful use of trial records and other primary sources to capture vivid images and make audible the "voices" of both women and men who lived through the promises and betrayals of revolution. The result is a stunning local history that contributes to broader historiographical themes, such as Latin American labor studies, extractive capitalism, social revolution, and gender history."- Brooke Larson, Stony Brook University, author of <i>The Lettered Indian: Race, Nation, and Indigenous Education in Twentieth-Century Bolivia</i><br /><br />"Ambitious, well-researched, and compellingly narrated, <i>The Limits of Revolution</i> paints an intricate picture of Corocoro rich in contextual details. Yet this book is far more than a regional history. It uses Corocoro to make significant interventions into the literature on the Bolivian state, the 1952 Revolution, gender, class formation, and the spectrum of ethnic identity. The book portrays Corocoro’s miners in the larger frame of national and global economic forces, explaining how capital and commodity prices shaped local militancy." - Elizabeth Shesko, Oakland University, author of <i>Conscript Nation: Coercion and Citizenship in the Bolivian Barracks</i>
The role of Bolivian mining families in revolution and politics.
In 1952, Bolivia’s Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) swept into power, promising collective prosperity through class-based nationalism. The heroic symbol of the movement was the worker citizen—the formerly indigenous miner who would fuel economic development in a nationalized mining economy.
The Limits of Revolution explores this history from the worker barrios of the copper mining city of Corocoro. As the state walked back its promises of worker political power at the national level, mining men and women in Corocoro struggled—through protests, court battles, and barfights—to maintain the benefits of worker citizenship locally. After the MNR fell to a military dictatorship in 1964, however, families retreated to defending the nationalized mining company against an increasingly hostile state. In this battle to keep the revolution alive, the expansive potential of worker citizenship disappeared and old racial exclusions resurfaced. Largely forgotten today, Bolivia’s experience of revolution exposes the contradictions of postcolonial nationalism and sheds light on Latin America’s transition from Cold War–era class politics to twenty-first-century Pink Tide politics.
- List of Illustrations
- List of Acronyms, Archives, and Abbreviations
- Introduction. Housewives Against Dictatorship
- Chapter 1. The Cradle of Copper and Modern Bolivia, 1895–1930
- Chapter 2. Workers as National Resources in the ASARCO Era, 1930–1952
- Chapter 3. A Pueblo Rebelde: Worker Citizens in the Revolution, 1952–1964
- Chapter 4. Domesticating the Revolution: Mining Families and the Welfare State, 1956–1965
- Chapter 5. The Devil in the Mines: Personal and Political Violence, 1961–1969
- Chapter 6. Hatun Tantas: Children of the Revolution, 1969–1985
- Conclusions. The Revolution as a Devil’s Bargain
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Index
"Based on eighteen months of field work, oral interviews, and extensive archival research, Elena McGrath’s book opens a new window into Bolivia’s epic and everyday struggles over the meanings and boundaries of "worker citizenship" for male mine workers, women, their families, and their communities during the long MNR revolution (1952–1964) and beyond. The author makes skillful use of trial records and other primary sources to capture vivid images and make audible the "voices" of both women and men who lived through the promises and betrayals of revolution. The result is a stunning local history that contributes to broader historiographical themes, such as Latin American labor studies, extractive capitalism, social revolution, and gender history."- Brooke Larson, Stony Brook University, author of <i>The Lettered Indian: Race, Nation, and Indigenous Education in Twentieth-Century Bolivia</i><br /><br />"Ambitious, well-researched, and compellingly narrated, <i>The Limits of Revolution</i> paints an intricate picture of Corocoro rich in contextual details. Yet this book is far more than a regional history. It uses Corocoro to make significant interventions into the literature on the Bolivian state, the 1952 Revolution, gender, class formation, and the spectrum of ethnic identity. The book portrays Corocoro’s miners in the larger frame of national and global economic forces, explaining how capital and commodity prices shaped local militancy." - Elizabeth Shesko, Oakland University, author of <i>Conscript Nation: Coercion and Citizenship in the Bolivian Barracks</i>
The role of Bolivian mining families in revolution and politics.
In 1952, Bolivia’s Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) swept into power, promising collective prosperity through class-based nationalism. The heroic symbol of the movement was the worker citizen—the formerly indigenous miner who would fuel economic development in a nationalized mining economy.
The Limits of Revolution explores this history from the worker barrios of the copper mining city of Corocoro. As the state walked back its promises of worker political power at the national level, mining men and women in Corocoro struggled—through protests, court battles, and barfights—to maintain the benefits of worker citizenship locally. After the MNR fell to a military dictatorship in 1964, however, families retreated to defending the nationalized mining company against an increasingly hostile state. In this battle to keep the revolution alive, the expansive potential of worker citizenship disappeared and old racial exclusions resurfaced. Largely forgotten today, Bolivia’s experience of revolution exposes the contradictions of postcolonial nationalism and sheds light on Latin America’s transition from Cold War–era class politics to twenty-first-century Pink Tide politics.
- List of Illustrations
- List of Acronyms, Archives, and Abbreviations
- Introduction. Housewives Against Dictatorship
- Chapter 1. The Cradle of Copper and Modern Bolivia, 1895–1930
- Chapter 2. Workers as National Resources in the ASARCO Era, 1930–1952
- Chapter 3. A Pueblo Rebelde: Worker Citizens in the Revolution, 1952–1964
- Chapter 4. Domesticating the Revolution: Mining Families and the Welfare State, 1956–1965
- Chapter 5. The Devil in the Mines: Personal and Political Violence, 1961–1969
- Chapter 6. Hatun Tantas: Children of the Revolution, 1969–1985
- Conclusions. The Revolution as a Devil’s Bargain
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Index