"Lane deserves credit not only for assembling so much old and new information into a convenient form, but also for reminding us that cities have a life of their own, regardless of their national or transnational importance. . . . As he writes in his preface, the aim of his book is to 'balance the local and the global by treating Potosicity and mountain, mines and countrysideas an example of early modern global urbanism and extraction in action.' In this he succeeds admirably." * New York Review of Books * "Covering the period from the discovery of silver until 1825, he uses personal stories gleaned from original sources to produce a rich and lively account that shows how elite merchants, officials and mine owners rubbed shoulders with African slaves, native residents and migrants. . . . As this beautifully written book shows, the costs and benefits of globalisation are not confined to their historical moment." * History Today * "Lane builds his analysis from fragments: notarial records and other archival documents that are both amazingly rich and rather ill-suited to crafting a narrative driven by particular individuals or families. . . . by dividing each chapter into a handful of very short sections (some no more than a page long), he gives readers a sense of how historical research feels and leaves it to us to piece a fuller story together." * Times Literary Supplement * "Rollicking is not a term normally applied to books from an academic press, and it is perhaps an exaggeration, but only a slight one, to use it here. Lane includes technical, mineralogical, chemical, historical and other background, but his focus is on the stories, la comédie humaine, that played out in Potosķ during the two and three-quarter centuries between the discovery of silver and Simón Bolķvars declaration of independence delivered from the Cerro Ricos peak." * Asian Review of Books * "...a valuable contribution to the study and understanding of Andean civilization and history. . . . [ that] includes detailed sources and an extensive bibliography, and especially an appendix that collates the observations of selected early chroniclers of Potosķ. And although Lane describes himself as a newcomer and interloper to the history of Potosķ, he has delivered a marvelous work that brings together a library of writing on this fascinating topic and all under one cover." * Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina * "A skilled raconteur, Lane mines colonial chronicles written by potosinos for anecdotes to bring the city to life. . . . What makes Lanes book important is its focus on Potosi, the city, whose importance, he shows, was greater than just the mines and refining mills." * Journal of Early Modern History * "No volume in any language has offered a panoramic vision of [ Potosķ] history. A book was waiting to be written, and finally it comes to us in Lanes admirable and engrossing account." * Journal of Interdisciplinary History * "Lane achieves that rare balance, an imminently readable and enjoyable history with a strong narrative overview and archival specifics. In the process, Lane refocuses our conceptual map; in his view Potosķ is not 'peripheral' in the early modern or colonial world but rather is a 'center' in a world history context and an American, largely Indigenous, city. His approach creates a balanced history of the citys residents: Indigenous, African, Mestizo, Spanish, male, and female." * H-LatAm * :For Lane, the subject of Potos merits nothing less than a magisterial work." * Hispanic American Historical Review *
