Latin America During World War II

by Thomas M. Leonard (Editor), John F. Bratzel (Editor), George M. Lauderbaugh (Contributor)

The first full-length study of World War II from the Latin American perspective, this unique volume offers an in-depth analysis of the region during wartime. Each country responded to World War II according to its own national interests, which often conflicted with those of the Allies, including the United States. The contributors systematically consider how each country dealt with commonly shared the Axis threat to the national order, the extent of military cooperation with the Allies, and the war's impact on the national economy and domestic political and social structures. Drawing on both U.S. and Latin American primary sources, the book offers a rigorous comparison of the wartime experiences of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Central America, Gran Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, and Puerto Rico.

Genres: History, World War II

246 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Thomas M. Leonard is a professor of history emeritus at the University of North Florida.

Reviews

[Zhelana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an extremely interesting look at a topic that doesn't get covered much, namely World War Two from the perspective of nations outside of Europe and the USA. Each chapter covered one or more countries in Latin America and how they reacted to the war. It was interesting to see a lot of these nations were already at war with each other, or just recently out of war with each other, so their interests were receiving upgrades to their military which most of them got from America from the lend-lease program, which I had never thought about applying to anyone other than Britain before. One of America's most pressing concerns was preserving access to the Panama Canal and thus a lot of nations including Panama but also including many of the Caribbean countries were vital to America's interests. Nonetheless, this book did not take the perspective that America was all important, and instead talked about the interests of the governments they were discussing and why and to what extent they approached America about becoming allies in the war, upgrading their militaries, and dealing with U-boat attacks (which could not actually differentiate between the ships of neutral nations and allies and thus attacked everyone, pushing some nations to the allies side). This book really made the "world" in "world war 2" make more sense since in some ways the way it is normally taught makes it seem like Germany and Japan against England, USSR, and later America, which I guess is more than a regional war, but still it didn't really seem like a world war until I read this book and learned how the global south used, influenced, and was influenced by the war. It's a little bit tough reading being academic history and not popular history, but it was interesting enough to keep me reading and learning new information.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good high level overview of Latin America during World War 2. Some authors were better than others, as expected. I would have liked to see a bit more on actual military action, otherwise it's a quick read.