Studies of state-formation and political regime creation in Latin America generally focus on the period following the revolutionary wars. Reference to the colonial era is sometimes presented in such studies, but typically in a summary form. Thomas Ward’s book alerts us to the fact that prior to the arrival of the colonizers there was a large population, divided into distinct nations, and that their earlier and subsequent transformations as nations greatly affected the Spanish process of colonization. Failure on the part of analysts to account for the impact of those nations on the evolution of the Americas during the colonial period has led them to present an incomplete and biased portrayal of the worlds that emerged there. Equally as significant, Ward’s work warns us that by not accounting for the histories and cultures of the inhabitants of the Americas during the precolonial period, we are marginalizing and dehumanizing them.

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国家形成——拉丁美洲国家的形成：从古代晚期到现代早期。通过托马斯·沃德。诺曼：俄克拉荷马大学，2018 年。Pp。364. $55.00 布。

拉丁美洲国家形成和政权创建的研究通常集中在革命战争之后的时期。此类研究有时会提及殖民时代，但通常以摘要形式出现。托马斯·沃德 (Thomas Ward) 的书提醒我们这样一个事实：在殖民者到来之前，有大量人口分为不同的国家，他们作为国家的早期和随后的转变极大地影响了西班牙的殖民进程。分析家未能解释殖民时期这些国家对美洲演变的影响，导致他们对那里出现的世界做出了不完整和有偏见的描述。同样重要的是，