Modernity has been a key issue for Latin Americans and Latin Americanists for decades. Did Latin America come early or late to modernity? Was modernity imposed from outside the region, or has it been reinvented from within? Is modernity monolithic or multiple? The literature on the subject is rich, but--like Latin American modernity itself is often said to be--it is also fragmented, supplying contradictory answers to all these crucial questions. When Was Latin America Modern? is the first work to bring scholars from history, social science and cultural studies together in a fascinating series of debates about what it has meant to be modern in Latin America.