Alone Before God: The Religious Origins of Modernity in Mexico

Rating:
Summary: An engaging and much needed work on Bourbon Colonial Society
Review: Voekel uses crisp prose and clever nuance to craft a much needed book on piety and modernity in Bourbon Mexico. The importance of the Bourbon era is underdeveloped or misunderstood in strictly economic terms by current authors, and Voekel shatters that type. The author takes a mundane item like burial reform and creates a sharp, well documented and clear argument about piety, reform, modernity and power. Five well-deserved stars to Voekel for this work