""Shaky Colonialism "is a superior work of scholarship. Charles F. Walker uses a dramatic incident and its aftermath to present a very intelligent analysis of baroque colonialism and its halting transformation into the Enlightenment-inspired absolutism of the Bourbons. He balances human drama and color to pull the reader into a very serious analysis of colonial society."--Peter Guardino, author of "The Time of Liberty: Popular Political Culture in Oaxaca, 1750-1850"