About the Book

Parishioners of Sovereignty demonstrates how religion and republicanism made modern nationhood a living, breathing reality among everyday people in Paraguay from the era of independence struggles through the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-70).

Book Synopsis

The story of nineteenth-century Paraguay is the story of the dawn of modern nationhood in the world--and a devastating war is the culmination of this tale. The War of the Triple Alliance (1864-70), considered the bloodiest interstate conflict in the history of the Americas, pitted Paraguay against the combined forces of imperial Brazil and the republics of Argentina and Uruguay. By the end of the war, Paraguay was defeated and occupied, losing more than half its total population. Why, then, did everyday people in nineteenth-century Paraguay join and endure the violence and trauma associated with postcolonial sovereignty?

In Parishioners of Sovereignty Michael Kenneth Huner answers this question. He explores how modern nationhood became a living, breathing reality among everyday people in Paraguay even as such bonds of sovereignty remained fluid and contingent in the years leading up to and during the war. Although conventional history still portrays Paraguay's experience in the conflict as the result of a precocious cultural and ethnolinguistic-based nationalism, Huner argues in contrast that religion and republicanism rendered modern nationhood a moral imperative for which everyday Paraguayans worked, died, killed, and subverted. By tracing the complex interplay of religion, republicanism, and local social history that created the Paraguayan nation and state, and utilizing unique sources in the Guaraní language, Parishioners of Sovereignty casts crucial new light on the social history of early nation-building throughout the Americas.

Review Quotes

"Parishioners of Sovereignty makes a valuable contribution to our understandings of the myriad ways republicanism evolved in Latin America and the many forms created by Spanish Americans, both rich and poor. The book is meticulously researched, well written, and engaging. It will be of great interest to scholars of republicanism, nation and state formation, war and violence, and nineteenth-century religion. While it will be the book on nineteenth-century Paraguay for these subjects, I am also sure it will be used by scholars across the Americas, especially because Paraguay provides such a fascinating comparative case."--James E. Sanders, author of The Vanguard of the Atlantic World: Creating Modernity, Nation, and Democracy in Nineteenth-Century Latin America

"Michael Huner has crafted a highly readable and compelling tale of elite and popular nationalism in Paraguay, a country whose independence struggles reveal so much about armed contests throughout Latin America."--Anne Eller, author of We Dream Together: Dominican Independence, Haiti, and the Fight for Caribbean Freedom

About the Author

Michael Kenneth Huner is an associate professor of history at Grand Valley State University.