This is an unusual book for our days. With a theoretically ambitious agenda and a breathtaking space-time scope, Jeremy Smith takes us through the imaginary and institutional trajectories of the modern New World. A big adventure.

Jose Maurício Domingues, professor of sociology, University of the State of Rio de Janeiro

There is no doubt that Jeremy Smith is currently the most important and creative scholar in theorizing the Americas from a macro-sociological perspective. With great cultural sensitivity his new book analyses the role of imaginaries in the making of the most important regions and national societies of this continent so that an immensely rich picture of big cities, social movements, and capitalist structures is presented to the reader who cannot do anything else but admire Smith’s theoretical and empirical expertise.

Wolfgang Knöbl, director, Hamburg Institute for Social Research