What other historian could have given us this book? Stuart Schwartz flies effortlessly over 300 years and diverse lands in order to give us a new vision of racial discriminations in Latin America. With elegance and clarity he shows us how over these centuries phenotype came to replace religion in the economy of stigma, and how at every stage in this history, individuals resisted the prejudice imposed upon them. It is a book peopled with fascinating figures recovered from archival oblivion–Inca heiresses, repentant pirates, inter-confessional lovers, rogue conquistadores, African soldiers enslaved and escaped. All are treated with historical empathy, at the same time that they are invited to share their lessons for resisting discrimination with a future very much in need: our own.
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