The Impasse of the Latin American Left

Radical Américas

by Franck Gaudichaud, Massimo Modonesi, Jeffery R. Webber

In The Impasse of the Latin American Left , Franck Gaudichaud, Massimo Modonesi, and Jeffery R. Webber explore the region’s Pink Tide as a political, economic, and cultural phenomenon. At the turn of the twenty-first century, Latin American politics experienced an upsurge in progressive movements, as popular uprisings for land and autonomy led to the election of left and center-left governments across Latin America. These progressive parties institutionalized social movements and established forms of state capitalism that sought to redistribute resources and challenge neoliberalism. Yet, as the authors demonstrate, these governments failed to transform the underlying class structures of their societies or challenge the imperial strategies of the United States and China. Now, as the Pink Tide has largely receded, the authors offer a portrait of this watershed period in Latin American history in order to evaluate the successes and failures of the left and to offer a clear-eyed account of the conditions that allowed for a right-wing resurgence.

Genres: History

216 pages, Paperback

Published May 27, 2022

Reviews

[Marina Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book may not be the best resource for people who don't have some knowledge of the Latin American "left turn" or "pink tide." The three chapters in this book delve into the complexities of the changing sociopolitical landscape within Latin American countries including (but not limited to) Bolivia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. The authors do a great job of providing background information and creating arguments that support the left turn narrative as well as highlighting critiques of categorizing this period (2000s-2018ish) as a wave of leftist victories. I sometimes find texts from political scientists and historians to be a bit challenging to digest, but the book was relatively straightforward.