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Now in its third edition, Latin America since Independence explores the region's rich and diverse history through carefully selected stories, primary source documents, maps, and tables that offer a diverse approach to dominant historical narratives.
While histories of the "other" Americas often link disparate histories through revolutionary or tragic narratives, this text begins with the assumption that our efforts to imagine a common past for nearly thirty countries are deeply problematic. Without losing sight of chronology or regional trends, the book offers a distinctive conceptualization of the region as a diverse social landscape with a multiplicity of peoples and voices. Each chapter introduces students to a specific historical issue, which in turn raises questions about the history of the Americas as a whole. Key themes include:
- Race and Citizenship
- Inequality and Economic Development
- Politics and Rights
- Foreign Interventions
- Social and Cultural Movements
- Globalization
- Violence and Civil Society
- The Environment
Chapters also include timelines highlighting important dates and suggestions for further reading. This third edition has been updated throughout and includes a new Chapter 9 that discusses foreign intervention in Central America, and new text on the drug wars, resource extraction, and indigenous self-determination.
Richly informative and highly readable,
Latin America since Independence provides compelling accounts of this region's past and present that will be of interest to students of Latin American history and society.
List of contents
0. Introduction: Latin America's Useable Past 1. Independence Narratives, Past and Present AT A GLANCE: Political Divisions 2. Caudillos versus the Nation State 3. Citizenship and Rights in the New Republics AT A GLANCE: People 4. The Export Boom as Modernity 5. Signs of Crisis in a Gilded Age AT A GLANCE: Economy 6. Commerce, Coercion, and America's Empire 7. Power to the People AT A GLANCE: Environment 8. A Decade of Revolution in Cuba 9. The War on Democracy 10. Scorched Earth AT A GLANCE: Migration 11. Gender Trouble 12. Water Is Life AT A GLANCE: The Digital Divide 13. #Ya me cansé 14. Epilogue
About the author
Alexander Dawson is a Professor of History at the University at Albany (SUNY), USA. He is the author of
Indian and Nation in Revolutionary Mexico (2004),
First World Dreams: Mexico Since 1989 (2006), and
The Peyote Effect: From the Inquisition to the War on Drugs (2018).
Summary
Now in its third edition, Latin America Since Independence explores the region’s rich and diverse history through carefully selected stories, primary source documents, maps and tables that offer a diverse approach to dominant historical narratives.
