The History of Venezuela

by H. Micheal Tarver, Julia C. Frederick

With an upcoming election, Chávez's involvement with U.S. oil exports, and the country becoming a leader of an increasingly united South America, this volume provides necessary background information to understand how Venezuela became what it is today.
The history begins with Columbus's third voyage of discovery from Spain. Spanish explorers named the land "Little Venice" for the native homes built on stilts at the water's edge. Tracing the nation's 300 years as a Spanish colony through a brief unification followed by civil war, Tarver brings Venezuela's dramatic history to life. Highlighting events including the discovery of oil in the 1900s and the establishment of democratic government in 1958, Tarver offers a comprehensive chronicle that contextualizes the current unrest under the leadership of Hugo Chávez.

Genres: History, Latin American History, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite the stinker in comparison with the hordes of histories I've read in my quest to read a history of every country in the world that has one! Starts out strong but falls to pieces much earlier on than other histories. Usually it's around WWII that the narrative collapses into unceasing lists of names and acronyms and crappy face-fuck statistics, economic data, and analysis-free electoral numbers. This one gives up the ghost in the third quarter of the 19th century, the rest of time being a bewildering miasma of names, acronyms, and bad contextualizing. Chavez is rushed through in a sparse account of his evils, despite poor people liking him, but who cares about them!

[Enzo Altamiranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

As stated in its foreword the book aims at providing an analytical, concise and up-to-date recount of the country's history. I believe it accomplishes its mission successfully. The book is broad in its scope, starting from the precolonial era and ending in Chavez's "Bolivarian Revolution" in 2005. The pace is fast and the authors manage to keep the story interesting while analyzing the most salient details of each period, but still taking the time to talk about the mood of the country at the time. One of my concerns with the book before reading it, was that it might not be impartial enough. However, in the end I felt that the authors were fair in their judgments giving merit and blame where it was due.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book provides a decent overview of Venezuelan history from the arrival of Columbus to the present, which was 2006 when it was published. By virtue of its brevity, the book enables the reader to gain a lot of information quickly, but it also offers little in the way of detail that might make the people and events described memorable. It lists crops of economic importance, but tells nothing of what a typical peasant family might have considered a nice meal. It relates a parade of elites who came into and out of power in Caracas, but leaves to the reader's imagination when the ruling class acquired flush toilets. For all the strong personalities that appear to have shaped Venezuelan history, this book offers almost nothing personal about them. In all, this history reads more like a list of occurrences rather than a story of human events.

Also, this statement on page 6 might be unforgivable: "Its vast unpopulated territories still host native populations." Unpopulated? Really?

[Eliza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure if I’ll write a full review for this book or not.

It’s a brief overview history of the country of Venezuela, from the early human settlements, Spanish colonization, independence, to the era of oil and the rise of Hugo Chavez. For someone somewhat unfamiliar with the topic I found the book to be a useful guide to the major events in Venezuelan history.

I found the final three chapters by Alfredo Angulo Rivas to be overly partisan and unconvincing. I respect that it is difficult to write neutrally about current events, but I wish another author had been selected for this section. The key issue is that Rivas fails to interrogate and appreciate the depth of reasons why Chavez and the Bolivarian movement have been so popular and commanded such support by the working class.

[Roberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative read I think was strongest for the colonial era and early 20th century. It was nice to know some of the political and economic specifics. I did not care for the leaning for the opposition towards the end but hey most authors are anticommunists so it’s expected. Otherwise informative!

[Carlos Paredes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt it provided a thorough and brief overview of Venezuelan history. However, if you're looking for a book that gets further into the issue of Chávez and Venezuela's oil economy, this does a decent job of it. But Chávez only makes up a short section of the book towards the end.

[Eugenia Montiel Aceti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read some of the chapters of this book in order to write an undergraduate university paper.