This topical volume seeks to analyze the intimate but under-studied relationship between the construction of national identity in Latin America, and the violent struggle for political power that has defined Latin American history since independence. The result is an original, fascinating contribution to an increasingly important field of study.

To date, scholars have paid little attention to the role that music played at political rallies and protests, the political activism of right-wing and left-wing musicians, and the emergence of musical performances as sites of verbal and physical confrontations between Allende supporters and the opposition. This book illuminates a largely unexplored facet of the Cold War era in Latin America by examining linkages among music, politics, and the development of extreme political violence. It traces the development of folk-based popular music against the backdrop of Chile's social and political history, explaining how music played a fundamental role in a national conflict that grew out of deep cultural divisions. Through a combination of textual and musical analysis, archival research, and oral histories, Jedrek Mularski demonstrates that Chilean rightists came to embrace a national identity rooted in Chile's central valley and its huaso ("cowboy") traditions, which groups of well-groomed, singing huasos expressed and propagated through música típica. In contrast, leftists came to embrace an identity that drew on musical traditions from Chile's outlying regions and other Latin American countries, which they expressed and propagated through nueva canción. Conflicts over these notions of Chilenidad ("Chileanness") both reflected and contributed to the political polarization of Chilean society, sparking violent confrontations at musical performances and political events during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Mularski offers a powerful example and multifaceted understanding of the fundamental role that music often plays in shaping the contours of political struggles and conflicts throughout the world.This is an important book for Latin American studies, history, musicology/ethnomusicology, and communication.

What role does war play in political development? Our understanding of the rise of the nation-state is based heavily on the Western European experience of war. Challenging the dominance of this model, Blood and Debt looks at Latin America's much different experience as more relevant to politics today in regions as varied as the Balkans and sub-Saharan Africa. The book's illuminating review of the relatively peaceful history of Latin America from the late eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries reveals the lack of two critical prerequisites needed for war: a political and military culture oriented toward international violence, and the state institutional capacity to carry it out. Using innovative new data such as tax receipts, naming of streets and public monuments, and conscription records, the author carefully examines how war affected the fiscal development of the state, the creation of national identity, and claims to citizenship. Rather than building nation-states and fostering democratic citizenship, he shows, war in Latin America destroyed institutions, confirmed internal divisions, and killed many without purpose or glory.

Ever since its publication in 1941, The Mind of the South has been recognized as a path-breaking work of scholarship and as a literary achievement of enormous eloquence and insight in its own right. From its investigation of the Southern class system to its pioneering assessments of the region's legacies of racism, religiosity, and romanticism, W. J. Cash's book defined the way in which millions of readers— on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line—would see the South for decades to come. This fiftieth-anniversary edition of The Mind of the South includes an incisive analysis of Cash himself and of his crucial place in the history of modern Southern letters.

Aimed at scholars, students and lay persons interested in peace and conflict studies, The Ashgate Research Companion to Political Violence is a comprehensive resource to understand the principal debates on political violence, a field which is becoming an increasingly important part of courses on peace and conflict. Organized into seven main sections, this volume deals with a wide range of issues covering the following important research areas: · Issues of definition and nomenclature and how contests over these relate to political violence. · Theoretical frameworks and methods for understanding and researching political violence. · Motivations and goals of those who use political violence. · The various forms of political violence. · Perspectives on countering political violence, by state and non-state actors. · Why and how political violence ends. · The aftermath of political violence. Contributions by leading scholars in the field provide an authoritative guide and source book on political violence for the scholar, the researcher and the informed general reader.

Latin American comics and graphic novels have a unique history of addressing controversial political, cultural, and social issues. This volume presents new perspectives on how comics on and from Latin America both view and express memory formation on major historical events and processes. The contributors, from a variety of disciplines including literary theory, cultural studies, and history, explore topics including national identity construction, narratives of resistance to colonialism and imperialism, the construction of revolutionary traditions, and the legacies of authoritarianism and political violence. The chapters offer a background history of comics and graphic novels in the region, and survey a range of countries and artists such as Joaquin Salvador Lavado (a.k.a Quino), Hector G. Oesterheld, and Juan Acevedo. They also highlight the unique ability of this art and literary form to succinctly render memory. In sum, this volume offers in-depth analysis of an understudied, yet key literary genre in Latin American memory studies and documents the essential role of comics during the transition from dictatorship to democracy.

With ethnic and class-based national movements taking center stage in countries like Bolivia and Venezuela, nationalism has proven to be one of the most durable and important movements in Latin America. In understanding the history of these nationalisms, we can understand how Latin America relates to the rest of the world. As Latin America inserts itself into a rapidly globalizing world, understanding the changing nature of national identify and nationalism is key. By tracing the important historical origins of present-day Latin American nationalism, this book gives readers a thorough introduction to the subject. Only by understanding how nationalism came to be such an important social and political force, can we understand its significance today. In turn, understanding Latin American nationalism helps us understand how Latin America shapes, and is shaped by, a rapidly globalizing world.