During the first quarter of the twentieth century, there originated in Chile a labor movement which was to prove both important and unique. Peter Deshazo sets out here to furnish a detailed case study of that movement. By challenging previously held and often politically motivated conceptions of the Chilean unions, and by examining such hitherto unexplored sources as government documents and labor newspapers, he is able to illuminate the origins and development of an often successful and surprisingly autonomous labor campaign. Students and scholars of Latin America, labor history, comparative social movements, and political science will find the resultant pathbreaking study of the Chilean working class and its progressive mobilization valuable reading.

A fascinating historical examination of the Santiago Metro system as a microcosm of Chilean national identity during the twentieth century The Santiago Metro, the largest urban infrastructure project in Chile’s history, was designed in the 1960s in response to rapid urban growth. Despite the upheavals of Salvador Allende’s democratic socialism (1970–1973) and Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship (1973–1990), the project survived and is now the largest metro system in South America. What explains its success? How did its meaning shift under democracy and dictatorship? What does its history reveal about struggles for a more just city? Drawing on Chilean and French archives, Andra B. Chastain demonstrates that Chilean-French relations and French financing were crucial to the project’s survival during the Cold War. The Metro’s history also illuminates the contested process of implementing neoliberalism and the unexpected continuities of state planning and visions for a rational city that persisted despite free-market reforms. Most important, this story shows that the Metro came to symbolize the nation and became a critical site where planners, workers, and urban residents contested Chile’s path to modernity.