MacLachlan, Colin M.

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MacLachlan, Colin M.

PERSONAL:

Education: University of California, Los Angeles, Ph.D., 1969.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, 121 Hebert Hall, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, John Christy Barr Distinguished Professor of History.

WRITINGS:

Criminal Justice in Eighteenth Century Mexico: A Study of the Tribunal of the Acordada, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1974.

(With Jamie E. Rodriguez) The Forging of the Cosmic Race: A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1980.

Spain's Empire in the New World: The Role of Ideas in Institutional and Social Change, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1988.

Anarchism and the Mexican Revolution: The Political Trials of Ricardo Flores Magón in the United States, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1991.

(With William H. Beezley) El Gran Pueblo: A History of Greater Mexico, Prentice Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1994.

(Editor) Narcotráfico, Instituto de Investigaciones Culturales Latinoamericanas (Baja, CA), 1995.

(With William H. Beezley) Latin America: The Peoples and Their History, Harcourt Brace College Publishers (Fort Worth, TX), 2000, Thomson/Wadsworth (Belmont, CA), 2007.

(With Jamie E. Rodriguez) Hacia El Ser Histórico De México: Una Reinterpretación De La Nueva España, Editorial Diana (Mexico City, Mexico), 2001.

A History of Modern Brazil: The Past against the Future, Scholarly Resources (Wilmington, DE), 2003.

Argentina: What Went Wrong, Praeger Publishers (Westport, CT), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Colin M. MacLachlan is an historian with a particular interest in Latin America, primarily Mexico and Brazil. In addition to the social history of the region, he also studies its environmental history. He has written several books on the social history of Mexico and Latin America, including Spain's Empire in the New World: The Role of Ideas in Institutional and Social Change, El Gran Pueblo: A History of Greater Mexico, and Argentina: What Went Wrong.

Spain's Empire in the New World was written on the eve of the five-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus's initial trip to America. McLachlan reflects on the concept of the New World, and on Spain's role in creating the concept. American Indian Quarterly contributor Peter L. Steere wrote: "This impressive, concise study of the Spanish empire represents an extremely important contribution to a better understanding of the history of the New World-Old World interaction."

El Gran Pueblo, which MacLachlan wrote with William H. Beezley, is intended as a college-level textbook, but in actuality may serve as a general introduction to the history of Mexico, including the Revolution of 1910 and independence. Eric Van Young, in a review in the Latin American Research Review, observed that "this work of synoptic history has much to recommend it and might be read profitably by educated laypersons or even historians and other scholars." In addition to basic history, the book provides readers with an idea of the identity of the nation as a whole, and how it developed into its modern-day persona. Young went on to add that "its fairly conventional narrative is studded with essaylets of considerable interest."

In Argentina, MacLachlan looks at the history of Argentina and argues against the common view that the nation is an economic failure. He addresses the disparity between the ruling class, which dwells primarily in the cities, and the poverty-stricken individuals living in squalor in the most rural parts of the nation. He also looks at the development of the nation in the twentieth century, its politics, and some of its errors on the global stage, including the Falkland Islands War of the early 1980s. Gilbert Taylor, writing for Booklist, observed: "Sympathetic to the Argentine people, MacLachlan is an able analyst of the governments under which they've endured."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February 1, 1982, review of The Forging of the Cosmic Race: A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico, p. 293; October 1, 1990, William S. Maltby, review of Spain's Empire in the New World: The Role of Ideas in Institutional and Social Change, p. 1324; December 1, 1992, Mario T. Garcia, review of Anarchism and the Mexican Revolution: The Political Trials of Ricardo Flores Magón in the United States, p. 1632.

American Indian Quarterly, fall, 1992, Peter L. Steere, review of Spain's Empire in the New World, p. 579.

Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, July 1, 1982, review of The Forging of the Cosmic Race, p. 124; October 1, 1992, Ward S. Albro, review of Anarchism and the Mexican Revolution, p. 256.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July 1, 1982, Jean Meyer, review of The Forging of the Cosmic Race, p. 166.

Booklist, July 1, 2006, Gilbert Taylor, review of Argentina: What Went Wrong, p. 25.

Choice, April 1, 2004, W.M. Weis, review of A History of Modern Brazil: The Past against the Future, p. 1531; March 1, 2007, J.L. Elkin, review of Argentina, p. 1225.

Hispanic American Historical Review, February 1, 1990, J.H. Elliot, review of Spain's Empire in the New World, p. 181; May 1, 2005, Eul-Soo Pang, review of A History of Modern Brazil, p. 353.

Journal of American History, June 1, 1992, review of Anarchism and the Mexican Revolution, p. 312.

Journal of Economic History, September 1, 1989, John E. Kicza, review of Spain's Empire in the New World, p. 751.

Latin American Research Review, summer, 1999, Eric Van Young, review of El Gran Pueblo: A History of Greater Mexico, p. 143.

Library Journal, June 1, 1980, Stephen K. Stoan, review of The Forging of the Cosmic Race, p. 1306.

Reference & Research Book News, November 1, 1998, review of El Gran Pueblo, p. 58; November 1, 2003, review of A History of Modern Brazil, p. 71; August 1, 2006, review of Argentina; August 1, 2006, review of Latin America: The Peoples and Their History.

Sixteenth Century Journal, winter, 1989, John Frederick Schwaller, review of Spain's Empire in the New World, p. 655.

Social Science Quarterly, December 1, 1989, Donald C. Cutter, review of Spain's Empire in the New World, p. 1006.