Latin America Since 1780

Latin America since 1780 provides an accessible introductory text aimed at Spanish linguists and historians taking modules in Latin American history. It provides a compelling continental-based historical narrative supported throughout by incisive evaluation, pedagogical features, and authentic source texts in the original Spanish. This book focuses on key events such as the Wars of Independence, the Mexican, Cuban and Sandinista Revolutions, and the recent shift to the left, as well as providing short inserts on the main political protagonists such as Simon Bolívar, Getulio Vargas and Hugo Chávez. The 3rd edition has been revised in line with crucial recent political, cultural and economic developments. It offers an entirely new chapter covering the key events and issues of the 21st century, fresh topics for essays and presentations, increased attention to literary, ethnic and social culture and a new e-resource offering English translations of Spanish sources.

Although largely sharing a common past and language, the countries in Latin America remain distinct entities with their own identities. Latin America since 1780 provides a continental-based historical narrative which stresses the common themes between countries like Mexico in North America to Argentina in the Southern Cone, while at the same time highlighting their specific national contexts. This book focuses on key events such as the Mexican-American War, the Cuban Revolution, and the overthrow of Salvador Allende's government, as well as providing short inserts on the main political protagonists such as Simon Bolívar, Getulio Vargas and the Subcomandante Marcos. This new edition has been fully updated to include recent events and trends including Hugo Chávez's 'Bolivarian Revolution' in Venezuela, Evo Morales' electoral victory in Bolivia, and the so-called Pink Tide that has resulted in the emergence of a variety of socialist-leaning governments in the region. At the same time, the book discusses Latin America's cultural diversity, paying particular attention to the response of writers and film makers to the historical contexts covered in the book. A range of pedagogical devices and a lively prose style makes this book the ideal introduction to Latin American history. Written in an accessible style and assuming no prior knowledge, the books in this series address the specific needs of students on language courses, as well as anyone with an interest in modern history. Approaching the study of history via contemporary politics and society, each book offers a clear historical narrative and sets the country or region concerned in the context of the wider world.

The process of construction of national states had a decisive moment during the period of revolutions that spanned from the end of the eighteenth century until the mid-nineteenth century. Even if it was a generalized process throughout the Western world, the majority of social scientists that have analyzed it have based their theoretical models on the European and North American experiences. This volume pays particular attention to the historical experience of Latin America and accounts for its distinctive regional and national characteristics through the analysis of cases. It also evokes the existence of certain features of the process that historiography has not sufficiently taken into consideration until now. This book provides the first detailed perspective of the formation of the State’s bureaucracies in Latin America, a long and complex process shaped by the political, economic, social, and cultural conditions of different countries in the continent. These bureaucracies absorbed and institutionalized the pre-existing configurations of power while simultaneously transforming them. The essays included in this book offer an innovative vantage point for the analysis of issues that continue to be crucial in present-day Latin America, such as those that involve the relations between the State and society.

For a quarter of a century, Tulio Halperín Donghi's Historia Contemporánea de América Latina has been the most influential and widely read general history of Latin America in the Spanish-speaking world. Unparalleled in scope, attentive to the paradoxes of Latin American reality, and known for its fine-grained interpretation, it is now available for the first time in English. Revised and updated by the author, superbly translated, this landmark of Latin American historiography will be accessible to an entirely new readership. Beginning with a survey of the late colonial landscape, The Contemporary History of Latin America traces the social, economic, and political development of the region to the late twentieth century, with special emphasis on the period since 1930. Chapters are organized chronologically, each beginning with a general description of social and economic developments in Latin America generally, followed by specific attention to political matters in each country. What emerges is a well-rounded and detailed picture of the forces at work throughout Latin American history. This book will be of great interest to all those seeking a general overview of modern Latin American history, and its distinctive Latin American voice will enhance its significance for all students of Latin American history.

"This book explores the ways in which people in Latin America and the Caribbean joined with others in Europe and the United States to re-imagine the ancient term "democracy", so as to give it relevance and power in the modern world. In all these regions, that process largely followed the French Revolution; in Latin America it more especially followed independence movements of the 1810s and 20s. The book looks at how a variety of political actors and commentators used the term to characterize or argue about modern conditions through the ensuing half-century; by 1870, it was firmly established in mainstream political lexicons throughout the region. Following introductory scene-setting and overview chapters, specialists contribute wide-ranging accounts of aspects of the context in which the word was "re-imagined"; six final chapters explore differences in its fortune from place to place"--

With a section on Hugo Chavez, this work focuses on the social history and the analysis of the spectrum of revolutionary change since Bolivar. It also includes sections such as: Simon Bolivar - The Liberator; The Age of Caudillos - Juan Manuel de Rosas; and, Hugo Chavez - A Venezuelan Populist in the Era of Globalization.

Explores the modern history of Latin America using an intersectional approach, newly revised and updated. A History of Modern Latin America: 1800 to the Present, Third Edition offers a lively account of the rich political, cultural, and social history of the independent nation-states of Latin America and the Caribbean. Viewing Latin American history through the lens of social class, gender, race, and ethnicity, this accessible textbook explores the complex set of personalities, issues, and events that intersect to form the Latin American historical landscape. Written in a clear and engaging narrative style, the fully updated third edition examines specific events in different nations and periods to illustrate broader historical trends and interpretations. Concise chapters feature first-hand accounts of the life history of both prominent and ordinary people to contextualize topics such as African slavery in the Americas, the struggle for Haitian independence, the patriarchal rules governing marriage in Brazil, the construction of the Panama Canal, indigenous uprisings in the Mexican Revolution, the impact of immigration on Latin American life, the opening of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, and more. Presents documents and excerpts from fiction to serve as concrete examples of historical ideas Examines gender and its influence on political and economic change Highlights the role of music, art, sports, movies, and other popular culture in the formation of Latin American cultural identity Includes a summary of European colonialism and an overview of Latin America in the 21st century Provides end-of-chapter review questions, discussion topics, and suggested readings Part of the popular Wiley Blackwell Concise History of the Modern World series, the third edition of A History of Modern Latin America: 1800 to the Present is an excellent textbook for introductory and intermediate undergraduate students as well as high school students taking advanced/honors Latin American history courses.

The customary division of Latin American history into colonial and modern periods has come into question recently. This new book demonstrates that there was a middle period in Latin America's historical evolution since the European Conquest-one no longer colonial, but not yet modern-which has left a legacy in its own right for contemporary Latin America. This volume is a narrative text on Latin America's "long nineteenth century," from the period of Imperial Reforms in the late eighteenth century up to the Great Depression. Incorporating local and regional studies from the last three decades which have profoundly broadened and altered customary views about Latin America, the book is a synthesis of this "Middle Period." Latin America in the Middle Period re-evaluates the relation between subsistence and market production in the post-independence economy, stressing regional diversity. It also re-evaluates the mechanics of politics, which customarily have been seen as liberal-conservative, caudillo-oligarchy, region-nation, and merchant-landowner-industrialist. The text discusses the acceleration of the forces of modernization, the rise of industrial capitalism, and the beginnings of a national ordering of life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which eroded the fabric of Middle Period society, a process consummated in the aftermath of world depression in the 1930s, ushering in modern Latin America. This new volume is an excellent resource for courses in nineteenth-century Latin American history and the second half of Latin American history survey.