05/02/2016
"Superb. . . . As instructive as Ms. Fitz’s narrative is, it is also a pleasure to read. She has a gift for the sparkling phrase that both enchants and illuminates. . . . It is a rare historian who can bring politics alive with such verve."
Wall Street Journal - Fergus M. Bordewich
"Caitlin Fitz's superb study beautifully tells a story of persisting American egalitarian ideals coming under fire from an emerging cotton slaveocracy. With her meticulous research and trenchant prose, Fitz sends familiar preconceptions and pieties tumbling, and offers a new frame for understanding early American politics. With that, she takes her place at the forefront of an exciting, rising generation of American historians."
"Caitlin Fitz shows that U.S. observers’ attitude toward their fellow American Revolutionaries south of the Rio Grande was, above all, narcissistic. Her fast-paced narrative goes a long way toward explaining why, by the mid-20th century, the Americas’ first independent republic became the world’s leading suppressor of anti-colonial revolts."
Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution - Woody Holton
"Caitlin Fitz’s thrilling investigation is as notable for its readability as for the broad significance of its claims. Fitz introduces us to a United States where South American independence movements were embraced by a surprisingly wide range of U.S. residents, where hemispheric fellowship trumped racism, and both black and white children were named Bolivar. Much like the newspaper editors quoted within its pages, Our Sister Republics provides ‘an alternative picture of who we might have been, and just maybe, whom we might become.’"
"Caitlin Fitz’s Our Sister Republics is a tremendous accomplishment. Fitz’s bold and convincing argument removes the early history of the United States from its provincial cloister, revealing the transnational origins of American Exceptionalism, the ways in which the United States’ sense of its republican uniqueness was formed, since its very inception, in engagement with Spanish and Portuguese America. A timely, compelling, and important book."
"Caitlin Fitz has written an eloquent account of how public opinion in the United States welcomed the revolutions of the South American republics, and how the United States became the first country in the world to recognize their independence. She vividly describes the individual experiences of men and women, whites and blacks, politicians, intellectuals, and just plain folk."
"During the latter half of the Age of Revolution (1775-1825) many South American peoples threw off their colonial ties to Spain and Portugal and declared their independence. Residents of the United States hailed the birth of these nations and named towns and sons after Simon Bolivar. In this original and stimulating book, Caitlin Fitz shows how these ovations turned sour for many slave-state citizens when the new republics south of the border abolished slavery—one more example of the increasingly divisive politics of slavery in North America."
James M. McPherson James M. McPherson
"Fitz’s elegantly written history tells an early American story of reverse racial progress."
Atlantic - Robinson Meyer
"In a rip-roaring narrative, Caitlin Fitz tells the stunning story of camaraderie across the Americas in an era of revolutions. She shows that people of the United States took a generous, if self-congratulatory, delight in republican brotherhood in what was truly a revolutionary age, as well as how this shared idealism was forgotten in subsequent decades of division and nationalism."
"During the latter half of the Age of Revolution (1775-1825) many South American peoples threw off their colonial ties to Spain and Portugal and declared their independence. Residents of the United States hailed the birth of these nations and named towns and sons after Simon Bolivar. In this original and stimulating book, Caitlin Fitz shows how these ovations turned sour for many slave-state citizens when the new republics south of the border abolished slavery—one more example of the increasingly divisive politics of slavery in North America."
"Our Sister Republics provides an alternative picture of who we might have been, and just maybe, whom we might become." ---Amy Greenberg, author of A Wicked War
04/15/2016
Narrator Emily Durante delivers this work in an earnest voice that focuses more on the facts than the nuances of the author’s reinterpretation of events in the nineteenth century. The U.S. has always had a complicated relationship with Latin America. What started as a celebration of our founding ideas of liberty and equality evolved into disputes over slavery, white privilege, and American exceptionalism. Durante pronounces both English and Spanish words correctly, and her diction is excellent. Her tone, however, lacks emotion and doesn’t give listeners an opportunity to become involved in the story. It’s a shame because this part of early U.S. history is a fascinating era. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
SEPTEMBER 2016 - AudioFile
2016-04-06
