Many Meanings of Poverty

Cynthia E. Milton is Canada Research Chair in Latin American History at the Université de Montréal. She is coeditor of The Art of Truthtelling about Authoritarian Rule (2005)

• @fmct:Contents @toc4:List of Illustrations000 Acknowledgments000 Preface000 @toc2:IntroductionColonialism, Social Compacts, and the Taxonomy of Poverty1 @toc1:Part OneThe City and People of Quito @toc2:1. The City of Quito000 2. Living on the Edge: Survival Strategies of the Urban Poor000 @toc1:Part TwoSociety of Compacts: The Social Poor @toc2:3. Defining the "Solemn Poor": Wordplay and Petitions of Poverty in Colonial Quito, 16781782000 4. Prostrate before the Feet of the King: Widows, Widowhood, Pensions, and Colonial Compacts000 @toc1:Part ThreeSociety of Compacts: The Economic Poor @toc2:5. Children on the Fringe of Empire: The Limits and Uses of Juvenile Welfare000 6. Putting the Colonial (Poor) House in Order: The Wretched Poor and the Bourbon State000 @toc1:Part FourWhen Societies Meet: The Blurring of Social Compacts @toc2:7. Shifting Compacts of the Traditional Poor: Widows as Viudas and as Pobres000 8. The Broadening and Narrowing of the Solemn Poor: Poor Spaniards, the Wretched, and Collapsing Privileges, 17831800000 ConclusionThe Erosion of Charity, Boundaries, and Colonial Compacts000 @toc4:Appendix000 Glossary000 Notes000 Bibliography000 Index000

"This makes Quito, I think, the ideal setting for Cynthia Milton's welcome exploration of what poverty meant in late colonial Spanish America The Many Meanings of Poverty is clearly a major contribution to the historiography of colonial Ecuador, which after years of neglect has attracted innovative work in areas such as gender, law, and demography." - The Journal of Latin American Studies "The reach and ramifications of this book are broad. It is one of several new works that assess the social impact of the Bourbon reforms, and, by opening the doors to Quito's poor house, it contributes to reinvigorated institutional histories of Latin America... To write a history of poverty in colonial Spanish America is a truly ambitious endeavor. The Many Meanings of Poverty is a valiant attempt at this monumental task, and the only word to describe many of its findings is: rich." - Bianca Premo (Florida International University, Eighteenth-Century Studies) "Cynthia E. Milton's book ... adds an additional layer of explanation to Egas's interpretation of who comprised the 'truly poor.' In a richly detailed and throughly researched scrutiny of the various faces of poverty in late colonial Quito, Milton examines how society drew distinctions between the deserving and not-so-deserving poor." - March Becker (H-Net Reviews)