“Trading Roles is a pioneering study. The mass of research Jane E. Mangan has put into the work is truly amazing. She makes the lives of the vast majority of the population of PotosÍ come alive.”-Erick D. Langer, author of Economic Change and Rural Resistance in Southern Bolivia, 1880-1930
“Trading Roles is an unusually lively, detailed account of ‘the underdogs’ of a colonial Spanish American city. It draws attention not only to relatively invisible historical actors but to the rich texture of the deals and socially patterned expectations that brought them together.”-Kathryn Burns, author of Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco, Peru
“A fascinating and detailed case study based on important and original research. . . . Trading Roles makes a significant and thoughtful contribution to our understanding of specific networks of exchange, credit, and interaction in colonial Peru.”
- Caroline Dodds (Sixteenth Century Journal) “[Mangan’s] narrative style and scholarship clearly will set a high standard for years to come.”
- Michael D. Gambone (American Historical Review) “In the historiography on colonial PotosÍ, Mangan’s work is distinctive for its concentration on the grassroots of daily market activities and mundane business dealings. . . . The great strength of Mangan’s book is that she brings to life the world of the common vendors, artisans, merchants, and suppliers that made a great colonial city work.”
- Timothy E. Anna (Colonial Latin American Historical Review) “Mangan is always in firm control of her abundant data, no small achievement in this kind of research. This is the best study we have of the lower to middling urban castes and classes. . . . Mangan significantly advances the field of Andean history.”
- David Cahill (Ethnohistory) “This is a highly readable, well-argued study appropriate for courses on the urban economy as well as gender history. . . . It does offer an inclusive and fresh approach to understanding how women and men of all ethnic groups came to create a colonial world in PotosÍ.”
- Karen B. Graubart (Hispanic American Historical Review)
