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In recent years, the historiography of nineteenth-century Spain and Latin America has been invigorated by interdisciplinary engagement with scholars working on topics such as empire, slavery, abolition, race, identity, and captivity. No scholar better exemplified these developments than Christopher Schmidt-Nowara, a specialist on Spain and its Caribbean colonies in Cuba and Puerto Rico. A brilliant career was cut short in 2015 when he died at the age of 48. Rethinking Atlantic Empire takes Schmidt-Nowara’s work as a point of departure, charting scholarly paths that move past reductive national narratives and embrace transnational approaches to the entangled empires of the Atlantic world.
“Overall, Eastman and Jacobson have organized a powerful reminder of Schmidt-Nowara’s titanic contribution to Spanish imperial and Atlantic histories. The contributors write with great emotion, leading to compelling narratives and insightful arguments. This is a volume that should be read widely both for its synthetic treatment of Schmidt-Nowara’s work and as a blueprint for how historiographical ideas can shape disciplines and scholarship beyond their own fields.” • Hispanic American Historical Review
“The volume is well-thought out and expertly organized. It serves its purpose as a call for all historians, regardless of field, to remember Christopher’s many influences and to ecalibrate our approaches to history. Those who read this homage are left with a sense of awe and amazement at a scholar and a man who was a trailblazer in every respect.” • H-Net Reviews
“Rethinking Atlantic Empire is well conceptualized, organized, and written, with chapters that are exceptionally accessible and clear.” • Tamar Herzog, Harvard University
“This is a fine, well-balanced book that provides an excellent synopsis of Chris Schmidt-Nowara’s academic work and career, its legacy, and the personal and professional impact he and his work had on a generation of scholars in and around his field.” • David Ortiz, Jr, University of Arizona
Scott Eastman is the author of Preaching Spanish Nationalism across the Hispanic Atlantic, 1759-1823 (LSU Press, 2012). A member of the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies since 2003, he served as president of the organization from 2018-2020. He is co-editor of Berghahn’s series Studies in Latin American and Spanish History.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Scott Eastman and Stephen Jacobson
Chapter 1. Christopher Schmidt-Nowara (1966–2015): His Work and His Life
Stephen Jacobson
Chapter 2. The First Word: Empire and Antislavery: Spain, Cuba and Puerto Rico, 1833-1874 and the Renewal of Spanish Imperial History"
Adrian Shubert
Chapter 3. Not Just Spain, Not Just Colonies: Writing Transnational Histories of the Nineteenth Century
Joshua Goode
Chapter 4. "Divergent Reflections” on Colonialism and Nationalism in the Nineteenth-Century Hispanic World: Christopher Schmidt-Nowara’s “The Conquest of History”
Dalia Antonia Muller
Chapter 5. Bonds of Affection? The Catholic Church and Slavery in New Spain
Emily Berquist Soule
Chapter 6. Questions of Scale: Spain, Latin America, and the Atlantic World in Christopher Schmidt-Nowara’s Scholarship on Slavery
Elena Schneider
Chapter 7. Empire and Anti-Slavery through a New Lens: Spanish Colonialism Seen from the Dominican Republic and Haiti
Anne Eller
Chapter 8. Unlocking the Historical Truth of Abolitionist Literature: Beecher Stowe's A Key in Spanish Translation
Lisa Surwillo
Chapter 9. Empire and Civil Rights in Franco’s Spain
Louie Dean Valencia-García
Chapter 10. “To Make a Language of My Own”: Fernando Blanco White’s Flight to Freedom (1815)
Joselyn M. Almeida
Chapter 11. Spanish Prisoners of War and Political Refugees in France, 1808-1820
Juan Luis Simal
Conclusion: The Conquest of History and the Construction of Identitarian Discourses: An Interview with Christopher Schmidt-Nowara
Vicent Sanz Rozalén
List of Works by Christopher Schmidt-Nowara