"In a thoughtful and perceptive study, independent historian Marks... reveals that, rather than acting independently, the military officers who executed the coup also represented a significant group of wholesale merchants in Lima. Based primarily on extensive research in archival materials in Spain and Peru, this clearly written and argued work is the most important English-language study of Peruvian independence to appear in nearly 30 years." - M. A. Burkholder, Choice "Now and then one encounters a book based on such extensive research that it immediately accords its author substantial authority. This is such a book." - Timothy E. Anna, Colonial Latin American Historical Review "In broad terms the arguments and conclusions presented in this stimulating book build upon and extend, rather than contradict, those of previous commentators on Peru's transition to independence, but they do so with an unprecedented level of detail and incisive analysis, making a major contribution to the historiography of late colonial Peru. This book deserves to be read by all students of the Bourbon reforms and Spanish American independence." - John Fisher, American Historical Review "This book, based on decades of meticulous research, is a major contribution to the burgeoning literature on the late colonial period, a period whose intellectual vitality is now being recognized after many decades of neglect." - G. B. Paquette, The Americas"