History of Modern Latin America: 1800 to the Present

Now available in a fully–revised and updated second edition, A History of Modern Latin America offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the cultural and political history of this vibrant region from the onset of independence to the present day. Throughout the text, examples of what transpired in a single nation at a specific time such as the slave revolt in Haiti, the patriarchal rules governing marriage in Brazil, construction of the Panama Canal, and the Mexican Revolution are examined as representative of wider phenomena and serve as segues into the ideas, conflicts, social movements, and cultural trends that populate Latin America s rich historical landscape. The lives of prominent figures are introduced alongside those of ordinary people from a diverse array of social, racial, and ethnic backgrounds. These first–hand accounts are interspersed throughout the narrative, along with documents and excerpts from fiction, as a means of providing tangible examples of historical ideas.

With added coverage of the recent opening of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba and an all new chapter exploring challenges posed by economic growth and environmental sustainability, the new edition of this popular text will be an invaluable resource for students and teachers of Latin American history.

Acknowledgments

Preface to the Second Edition

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Land and Its People

Chapter 2: Latin America in 1790

Chapter 3: Competing Notions of Freedom

Chapter 4: Fragmented Nationalisms

Chapter 5: Latin America s Place in the Commodity Chain

Chapter 6: Immigration, and Urban and Rural Life

Chapter 7: Revolution from Countryside to City: Mexico

Chapter 8: The Left and the Socialist Alternative

Chapter 9: Populism and the Struggle for Change

Chapter 10: Post–World War II Struggles for Sovereignty

Chapter 11: Cuba: Guerrillas Take Power

Chapter 12: Progress and Reaction

Chapter 13: Revolution and Its Alternatives

Chapter 14: The Americas in the Twenty–first Century

Chapter 15: A Future of Sustainable Cooperation?

Further Reading

Index

Teresa Meade is Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and Culture at Union College, New York. She is the author of A Brief History of Brazil (2 nd edition, 2009), Civilizing Rio: Reform and Resistance in a Brazilian City (2005), and co–editor of A Companion to Gender History (Wiley, 2004) and Science, Medicine and Cultural Imperialism (1991). She has written widely on Latin America as well as on women and gender history.