The history of Latin America has been written principally with a top-down approach that focuses on leaders and the privileged. Hernán Horna brings us a history that centers on the experience of Native Americans, blacks, and the poor. It examines the ongoing projects of identity and unity in Latin America through the lenses of ethnicity, culture, politics, and economics, from the ancient cultures of the Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs to the 21st century.
“With strong narrative overviews of the post-independence history of every country in Latin America, undergraduate students will be hard-pressed to find a better single-volume work that can be used as an initial point of reference.” — Journal of Latin American Studies
“[This] textbook brings a remarkably fresh perspective in the chronology adopted and choice of major themes, and points to a subdued yet ever-present immobility of social structures rooted in the centuries of Hispanic colonialism. … Far more informative and interesting than those hitherto available [with a] succinct and appropriately critical eye.” — Stanley J. Stein, Princeton University
“This revised edition of Professor Hernán Horna’s masterful A History of Latin America provides a unique synthesis of the evolution of Latin America from Amerindian antiquity to colonialism, U.S. domination, and recent democratization. With a deep sense of Latin America’s national specificities, ethnic diversity, social inequality, and economic limitations, Horna illuminates the multiple challenges of a vast region with a global potential.” — Aline Helg, University of Geneva, Switzerland
“A useful, lively, short history of Latin America that does a fine job of relating the past to current issues and illuminating country and regional differences. It will have wide appeal for students of Latin America and for the general public.” — Catherine C. LeGrand, McGill University, Canada