On the Spot: Courtney J. Campbell
‘What historical topic have I changed my mind on? I used to give the powerful a lot of agency and the oppressed little.’
Why are you a historian of Latin America?
Studying languages led me from Michigan to Paraguay and then Brazil. I became interested in the history of US presence in the region.
What’s the most important lesson history has taught you?
Small things matter.
Which history book has had the greatest influence on you?
Rebecca Earle’s The Return of the Native: Indians and Myth-Making in Spanish America, 1810-1930.
What book in your field should everyone read?
Barbara Weinstein’s The Color of Modernity: São Paulo and the Making of Race and Nation in Brazil.