In this book, Natalia Sobrevilla Perea reconstructs the history of the armed forces in nineteenth-century Peru and reveals what it meant to be a member. By centering the experiences of individuals, it demonstrates how the armed forces were an institution that created social provision, including social care for surviving family members, pensions for the elderly, and assistance for the infirm. Colonial militias transitioned into professional armies during the wars of independence to become the institution underpinning and sustaining the organization of the republic. To understand the emergence and weaknesses of nineteenth-century Peru, it is imperative to interrogate how men of the sword dominated post-independence politics.

‘Based on monumental research in the military archives, this book offers a groundbreaking social history of the Peruvian army in the nineteenth century. A remarkable and much needed step forward for the study of state building in Latin America.'

Alejandro Rabinovich - CONCIET Argentina

‘Sobrevilla Perea demonstrates that Peru's post-independence military was the backbone of the new state, presenting this from the unique standpoint of the soldier and his family, covering everything from recruitment to pensions. The book is a tour de force in reviving bellicist theory in studies of Latin American state formation.'

Luis Schenoni - author of Bringing War Back In: Victory, Defeat, and the State in Nineteenth Century Latin America

‘Sobrevilla Perea provides the first monograph to account for the history of the formation of the republican army as an institution in Peru in an era of endemic political turmoil as was the early decades of the republic. It is an important contribution.'

Cecilia Méndez Gastelumendi - University of California, Santa Barbara

‘Based on exhaustive archival research, Armed Citizens and Citizens in Arms documents how the military contributed to state-building in nineteenth-century Peru by providing pensions to soldiers and their survivors. It is a rich and fascinating study of how citizens interacted with the Peruvian state from the first days of the republic.'

Raul L. Madrid - University of Texas at Austin