Introduction To Bolivia

Bolivia, officially known as the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a country located in South America. It shares borders with Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, and Argentina. Bolivia's geography is diverse, with the Andes mountain range dominating the western portion of the country and the Amazon rainforest covering most of the east. Bolivia is known for its cultural heritage, which is heavily influenced by the native indigenous population. The official languages are Spanish, Aymara, and Quechua. Bolivia's economy is primarily centered around the natural resources of oil, gas, mining, and agriculture. Despite being ranked as one of the poorest countries in South America, Bolivia has a rich history and culture that continue to thrive today.

In its first Spanish edition, Herbert Klein's A Concise History of Bolivia won immediate acceptance within Bolivia as the new standard history of this important nation. Surveying Bolivia's economic, social, cultural and political evolution from the arrival of early man in the Andes to the present, this current version brings the history of this society up to the present day, covering the fundamental changes that have occurred since the National Revolution of 1952 and the return of democracy in 1982. These changes have included the introduction of universal education and the rise of the mestizos and Indian populations to political power for the first time in national history. This second edition brings this story through the first administration of the first self-proclaimed Indian president in national history and the major changes that the government of Evo Morales has introduced in Bolivian society, politics and economics.

In 2005, Bolivians elected their first indigenous president, Evo Morales. Ushering in a new "democratic cultural revolution," Morales promised to overturn neoliberalism and inaugurate a new decolonized society. Nancy Postero examines the successes and failures in the ten years since Morales's election

"Bolivia is an unusual high-altitude society created by imperial conquests and native adaptations, and it remains today the most Indian of the American republics, yet it fully participates in the world economy. It has also seen the most social and economic mobility of Indian and mestizo populations in Latin America. These are among the themes analyzed in this historical survey. In its first Spanish edition, Herbert Klein's A Concise History of Bolivia won immediate acceptance within Bolivia as the new standard history of this important nation. Surveying Bolivia's economic, social, cultural, and political evolution from the arrival of early man in the Andes to the present, this current version brings the history of this society up to the present day, covering the fundamental changes that have occurred since the National Revolution of 1952 and the return of democracy in 1982. These changes have included the introduction of universal education and the rise of the mestizos and Indian populations to political power for the first time in national history. Containing an updated bibliography, A Concise History of Bolivia remains an essential text for courses in Latin American history and politics. The second edition brings this story through the first administration of the first self-proclaimed Indian president in national history and the major changes that the government of Evo Morales has introduced in Bolivia society, politics, and economy"--

As Bolivia reels from the collapse of the government in November 2019, a wave of social protests, and now the impact of Covid-19, this book asks: where next for Bolivia? After almost 14 years in power, the government of Bolivia’s first indigenous president collapsed in 2019 amidst widescale protest and allegations of electoral fraud. The contested transitional government that emerged was quickly struck by the impacts of the Covid-19 public health crisis. This book reflects on this critical moment in Bolivia’s development from the perspectives of politics, the economy, the judiciary and the environment. It asks what key issues emerged during Evo Morales’s administration and what are the main challenges awaiting the next government in order to steer the country through a new and uncertain road ahead. As the world considers what the ultimate legacy of Morales’s left-wing social experiment will be, this book will be of great interest to researchers across the fields of Latin American studies, development, politics, and economics, as well as to professionals active in the promotion of development in the country and the region.

Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president, won reelection three times on a leftist platform championing Indigenous rights, anti-imperialism, and Bolivian control over the country's natural gas reserves. In Bolivia in the Age of Gas, Bret Gustafson explores how the struggle over natural gas has reshaped Bolivia, along with the rise, and ultimate fall, of the country's first Indigenous-led government. Rethinking current events against the backdrop of a longer history of oil and gas politics and military intervention, Gustafson shows how natural gas wealth brought a measure of economic independence and redistribution, yet also reproduced political and economic relationships that contradicted popular and Indigenous aspirations for radical change. Though grounded in the unique complexities of Bolivia, the volume argues that fossil-fuel political economies worldwide are central to the reproduction of militarism and racial capitalism and suggests that progressive change demands moving beyond fossil-fuel dependence and the social and ecological ills that come with it.

Recent decades have witnessed major reform within Bolivia: an impressive democratic and economic resurgence

Ten original essays discuss changes in the life, politics, and culture of Bolivia since the revolution of 1952.