More than other Atlantic societies, Latin America is shackled to its past. This collection is an exploration of the binding historical legacies--the making of slavery, patrimonial absolutist states, backward agriculture and the imprint of the Enlightenment--with which Latin America continues to grapple.Leading writers and scholars reflect on how this heritage emerged from colonial institutions and how historians have tackled these legacies over the years, suggesting that these deep encumbrances are why the region has failed to live up to liberal-capitalist expectations. They also invite discussion about the political, economic and cultural heritages of Atlantic colonialism through the idea that persistence is a powerful organizing framework for understanding particular kinds of historical processes.

Preface1. Jeremy Adelman--Introduction: The Problem of Persistence in Latin American History2. Philip D. Curtin--Europe and the Atlantic World3. Robert L. Tignor--Colonial Africa through the Lens of Colonial Latin America4. Barbara Hadley Stein and Stanley J. Stein--Financing Empire: The European Diaspora of Silver by War5. Kenneth R. Maxwell--Hegemonies Old and New: The Ibero-Atlantic in the Long Eighteenth Century6. Robert W. Patch--Dependency and the Colonial Heritage in Southeastern Mesoamerica7. Richard J. Salvucci--Agriculture and the Colonial Heritage of Latin America: Evidence from Bourbon Mexico8. Steve J. Stern--The Tricks of Time: Colonial Legacies and Historical Sensibilities in Latin America9. Tulio Halperin Donghi--Argentines Ponder the Burden of the Past10. Stuart B. Schwartz--The Colonial Past: Conceptualizing Post-Dependentista Brazil11. Joseph L. Love--Furtado, Social Science, and History12. Michael F. Jiménez--The Elision of the Middle Classes and Beyond: History, Politics, and Development Studies in Latin America's Short Twentieth Century