Jeff Broadwater

Jack Kennedy: The Education of a Statesman: Leaming, Barbara: New York: W.W. Norton, 509 pp., Publication Date: May 2006

alliances, mysterious afflictions, and political wrangling came to characterize life in La Purísima, crystallizing many of the concerns of a tumultuous New Spain at the decline of the colonial period. Chowning, a professor of history at Berkeley, skillfully presents this compelling story, embroidered with exquisitely rich and well-researched historical data, with a pace and organization that draws the reader eagerly through the book’s 272 pages of main text. The book itself is divided into two main sections. The three chapters in part 1 (“Rebellion”) situate the convent (and religious life in general) within Mexican colonial life, recount the first rebellion of nuns against the strict reformist rule of the convent’s foundress, and describe the subsequent ascendance of a “rebellious” and extremely controversial abbess who, by her actions, seemed to challenge the very authority of the church. Throughout these chapters, Chowning illuminates the tensions that infused both the inner life of the convent and the relationship between this female order and the patriarchal church hierarchy. The inclusion of the nuns’ own words (culled from correspondence and other convent documents) lends a richness to the work that makes an already fascinating historical exploration particularly compelling. The three chapters that make up part 2 (“Struggle”) trace the trajectory of the convent after the “rebellious nuns” were defeated in a convent election and the original vision of the foundress restored—at least temporarily. As Mexico waged its war of independence from Spain beginning in 1810 and then struggled to develop its fledgling national identity, religious institutions all over Mexico encountered unprecedented challenges. In the end, mundane (rather than spiritual) matters decided the fate of La Purísima. Chowning’s book stands out as a useful companion to some other notable works that explore the specific experiences of individual nuns (for example, Bynum’s Holy Feast, Holy Fast) or the politics of religious observance in New Spain (for example, Benitez’s Los Demonios en el Convento), by bringing these two threads together within the context of La Purísima. This book will be of great interest to professionals in the fields of history, religious studies, women’s studies, Latin American studies, anthropology, and sociology, as well as graduate and undergraduate students of the same.