Writing of Two Worlds. A Review of J.H. Elliott's <em>Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830</em> (New Haven: Yale UP, 2006)
Keywords
Imperialism, English Empire, American Empire, colonialism
Keywords
Imperialism, English Empire, American Empire, colonialism
Abstract
John Elliott has succeeded in a Herculean task. In writing a comparative study of England and Spain in the Americas from the moment of discovery through to the final political break, he of necessity confronted and absorbed many literatures. Beyond this, he did what we comparativists know to be a delicate, indeed nearly impossible task: he wrote a readable book even as he wove back and forth between his two subjects paragraph by paragraph rather than chapter by chapter. He wrote in such a way that audiences who were deeply familiar with one of his subjects but not at all with the other could understand the foreign territory and yet not feel bored while in the more familiar terrain.
Published
2007-01-01
Section
Reviews: Empire & Colonialism