Latin America: An Interpretive History

by E. Bradford Burns, Julie A. Charlip

For courses in Modern Latin America. Organized thematically, this text offers a clear narrative that weaves together the story of an entire region, with coverage of broad themes and regional diffences. Despite the great diversity within the Latin America, there is a common theme that characterizes the sweep of history in the region. The original author of the text, E. Bradford Burns, phrased the problem as the paradox that poor people inhabit rich lands. The reason for the paradox is that a tiny group of elites confuses the nation's well-being with their own. When this text was first published in 1972, there were very few texts on Latin America, and the ones that existed largely read like catalogs of historical events. There are others now, but this textbook is still a leader

Genres: History

368 pages, Paperback

First published July 23, 2006

Reviews

[Micah Rockwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written from to true lefty racist’s perspective. Everything that ever happened was because of white men oppressing non-whites. And everything bad was because of elites oppressing non-elites. And socialist and communist revolutions were the heroic ideals. What a load of garbage. While racism did exist, while people do atrocious things, these don’t define history. They are a PART of it, but not the reason for it. The entire story of human history has been a result of the condition of the human heart regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or status. No wonder kids are getting brain washed. If one doesn’t know better, this book will easily convince the reader that white folks are just a bunch of racist, egotistical elites who want everything for themselves and to enslave all non-white peoples.

[Sasha (bahareads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

*I did not read the entire book.

Latin America: An Interpretive History was used more as a reference for me in my Survey of Latin American class. I did enjoy what I did read out of Latin America: An Interpretive History. While the book was rather too short for my taste, it was packed with valuable information. I appreciate all the work that went into this book.

[Serge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview. Using Chap 9 (The Revolutionary Option) and Chap 10 (Debt and Dictatorship) with Sophomores for Latin America case study