Reinventing the city of the kings: Postcolonial modernizations of Lima, 1845--1930.

摘要

This study analyzes the postcolonial processes of modernization of the city of Lima, during three key historical periods: the mid-nineteenth century--usually known as the "era of guano"--the late nineteenth and early twentieth century--post War of the Pacific--and the 1920s--the "Oncenio de Leguia." It historicizes the conceptions of the city and the plans to reform it, to understand how Peruvians imagined modernity and progress and attempted to create viable images of their nation. This study proposes that Lima became the center of preoccupations for postcolonial elites who attempted to make it a laboratory for the society they wanted to create for their country at large. The study thus explores how "modernity," "progress," and "the nation" was vicariously understood and debated by politicians, planners, engineers, criminologists, hygienists, intellectuals, and the population at large.