This volume conveys an ambitious agenda presented by the editors in the introduction, branching out progressively throughout the 18 essays it contains. The main purpose of the collection is to examine the complex and changing nature of the relationship between intellectuals, the lettered tradition and power, through particular cases mostly from Peru, one from the viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, and one case from Chile. The critical agenda presented by the editors calls for theoretical and methodological approaches that are not necessarily picked up by all authors. Some display a rather conservative approach to historical research. The selection, then, could have been shorter, and that could have dispensed more time for more careful editing to improve the writing of some of the authors.

The first of four sections, entitled ‘Conflict and Dissidence’, has three essays on different aspects of the production, dissemination and reception of the work of artists and intellectuals during the colonial period. Guibovich presents a fine reconstruction of the intricate process of censorship of a controversial epic poem in the sixteenth century after the fall of a viceroy who had sponsored the poem's author, Pedro de Oña; in doing so he clearly illustrates the strong effects on the artists' fates after their benefactors ceased being in power. Rodriguez provides a creative and rich portrayal of the elaborate manoeuvres made by multifaceted intellectual and playwright Pedro Peralta y Barnuevo in order to maintain some individuality without alienating the support of the elites by using his work to produce legitimising symbols of the social order. Victor Peralta studies the correspondence between journalist and intellectual Llano Zapata and a laboriously built network of authorities and influential friends, making evident the energy involved in overcoming the vulnerable situation of intellectuals crucially dependent on a highly personalised system of power that could render them isolated after any change of authority. A final essay by Bernard Lavalle gives a sound closure to this section, corroborating the editors' suggestion about the need to overcome Angel Rama's rather rigid view on the symbiotic relationship between the lettered elite and power during colonial times.

The second section is diverse and uneven in both the quality of the research behind each piece and the theoretical ambitions of the authors; the editors could have perhaps been more selective or demanding here. The different essays explore the ways in which ideas about modernity permeated intellectual and artistic production from the late eighteenth century – amidst the cultural, ideological and political changes brought by the Bourbon Reforms – to the early decades of the independent republics in the nineteenth century. Margarita Garrido's engaging study on the controversial Antonio Nariño shows the different emerging spaces from which intellectuals could negotiate and express their ideas in Nueva Granada before independence. Another marginal and irreverent liberal intellectual is portrayed in Stuven's work on Chilean journalist Martin Palma, who, infused by liberal values, questioned the prevalence of colonial domination of the Church in independent Chile. In a well-documented study, Ragas shows changes and continuities in the work of professionals serving the state, providing a stimulating reflection on the effective role of statistics, in spite of their technical shortcomings, in the creation of a shared image of the territory and its demographics. In contrast with Villacorta's polished but rather superficial note on the iconic Italian scientist Raimondi, Valcarcel's text on serial novels in Cusco is sketchy and feels unfinished, but is penetrating and insightful in its understanding of this genre as a vehicle for the circulation of ideas about the social transformations brought about by modernity.

The third and fourth sections are also diverse and present an eclectic combination of topics and theoretical and disciplinary approaches. Given the existing scholarship on Manuel Gonzales Prada and the challenging agenda of the editors, Cosamalon's piece is disappointing, as he takes no critical distance from his well-researched sources. MacEvoy reconstructs the intellectual trajectory of Garcia Calderón, presenting him as a Western intellectual from the periphery and linking the mental illness of his final years with the impossibility of translating his highly elaborate political thought to the reality of Peruvian politics. Fonseca's presentation of John Mackay, a Scottish Protestant missionary in Peru, is a detailed, reflexive and well-crafted vessel that conveys a deep and nuanced understanding of the role of Christian thought in the intellectual and political history of early twentieth-century Peru. Klaiber's contribution on the importance of Catholicism in Peruvian political thought covers a longer period and is a scholarly document that I am sure will be widely used. Mendoza provides a gripping ethnography documenting the role of a radio programme as space for the active elaboration of a particular nationalist expression in mestizo Cusco. Aguirre uses his interest in prisons to reflect on the privileged situation of middle-class intellectuals who experienced imprisonment, and the insurmountable social gap between them and the common prisoners. Walker's attentive review and reflection on the relationship between historical research and the teaching in schools of history related to power is timely and highly relevant.

Finally, Jean Franco's epilogue reinforces the agenda forwarded by the editors, emphasising the need to historicise and contextualise intellectual production in the specific cultures and political realms in which it emerges.