A New History of Modern Latin America provides an engaging and readable narrative history of the nations of Latin America from the Wars of Independence in the nineteenth century to the democratic turn in the twenty-first. This new edition of a well-known text has been revised and updated to include the most recent interpretations of major themes in the economic, social, and cultural history of the region to show the unity of the Latin America experience while exploring the diversity of the region’s geography, peoples, and cultures. It also presents substantial new material on women, gender, and race in the region. Each chapter begins with primary documents, offering glimpses into moments in history and setting the scene for the chapter, and concludes with timelines and key words to reinforce content. Discussion questions are included to help students with research assignments and papers. Both professors and students will find its narrative, chronological approach a useful guide to the history of this important area of the world.

Winner, American Library Association Booklist’s Top of the List, 2019 Adult Nonfiction Acclaimed writer Marie Arana delivers a cultural history of Latin America and the three driving forces that have shaped the character of the region: exploitation (silver), violence (sword), and religion (stone). “Meticulously researched, [this] book’s greatest strengths are the power of its epic narrative, the beauty of its prose, and its rich portrayals of character…Marvelous” (The Washington Post). Leonor Gonzales lives in a tiny community perched 18,000 feet above sea level in the Andean cordillera of Peru, the highest human habitation on earth. Like her late husband, she works the gold mines much as the Indians were forced to do at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Illiteracy, malnutrition, and disease reign as they did five hundred years ago. And now, just as then, a miner’s survival depends on a vast global market whose fluctuations are controlled in faraway places. Carlos Buergos is a Cuban who fought in the civil war in Angola and now lives in a quiet community outside New Orleans. He was among hundreds of criminals Cuba expelled to the US in 1980. His story echoes the violence that has coursed through the Americas since before Columbus to the crushing savagery of the Spanish Conquest, and from 19th- and 20th-century wars and revolutions to the military crackdowns that convulse Latin America to this day. Xavier Albó is a Jesuit priest from Barcelona who emigrated to Bolivia, where he works among the indigenous people. He considers himself an Indian in head and heart and, for this, is well known in his adopted country. Although his aim is to learn rather than proselytize, he is an inheritor of a checkered past, where priests marched alongside conquistadors, converting the natives to Christianity, often forcibly, in the effort to win the New World. Ever since, the Catholic Church has played a central role in the political life of Latin America—sometimes for good, sometimes not. In this “timely and excellent volume” (NPR) Marie Arana seamlessly weaves these stories with the history of the past millennium to explain three enduring themes that have defined Latin America since pre-Columbian times: the foreign greed for its mineral riches, an ingrained propensity to violence, and the abiding power of religion. Silver, Sword, and Stone combines “learned historical analysis with in-depth reporting and political commentary...[and] an informed and authoritative voice, one that deserves a wide audience” (The New York Times Book Review).

Presents the geography, the demography, and the political, social, and economic history of Latin America. Provides a topical overview of Latin American development from earliest times to the present day, bringing to light patterns of continuity and change.

This best-selling text for introductory Latin American history courses encompasses political and diplomatic theory, class structure and economic organization, culture and religion, and the environment. The integrating framework is the dependency theory, the most popular interpretation of Latin American history, which stresses the economic relationship of Latin American nations to wealthier nations, particularly the United States. Spanning pre-historic times to the present, A HISTORY OF LATIN AMERICA takes both a chronological and a nation-by-nation approach, and includes the most recent historical analysis and the most up-to-date scholarship. The Ninth Edition includes expanded coverage of social and cultural history (including music) throughout and increased attention to women, indigenous cultures, and Afro-Latino people assures well balanced coverage of the region's diverse histories. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

This Oxford Handbook comprehensively examines the field of Latin American history.

Mexicans, since national independence, have defined their challenges as problems or dimensions in their lives. They have faced these issues alone or with others through politics, security (the military, police, or even public health squads), religion, family, and popular groups. This unique reader collects documents—texts, visuals, videos, and sounds—from organizational reports, popular expressions, and ephemeral creations to express these concerns, reveal responses, and measure successes. They allow readers to consider and discuss how these documents enabled Mexicans to evaluate their history and culture from 1810 to the present. Offering a wide variety of materials that can be tailored to the needs of individual instructors, these rich sources will ​stimulate critical thinking and give students new insights and often surprising respect and understanding for the ways Mexicans have managed to find humor, even magic, in their lives.