Containing over one hundred selections—most of them published in English for the first time—The Colombia Reader presents a rich and multilayered account of this complex nation from the colonial era to the present. The collection includes journalistic reports, songs, artwork, poetry, oral histories, government documents, and scholarship to illustrate the changing ways Colombians from all walks of life have made and understood their own history. Comprehensive in scope, it covers regional differences; religion, art, and culture; the urban/rural divide; patterns of racial, economic, and gender inequalities; the history of violence; and the transnational flows that have shaped the nation.  The Colombia Reader expands readers' knowledge of Colombia beyond its reputation for violence, contrasting experiences of conflict with the stability and significance of cultural, intellectual, and economic life in this plural nation.

Ann Farnsworth-Alvear is Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Dulcinea in the Factory: Myths, Morals, Men, and Women in Colombia's Industrial Experiment, 1905–1960, also published by Duke University Press.

Marco Palacios is Professor at El Colegio de México and Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, and the author of many books, including Between Legitimacy and Violence: A History of Colombia, 1875–2002, also published by Duke University Press.

Ana María Gómez López is an artist and independent scholar.

-- J. M. Rosenthal Choice

-- A. Ricardo López Revista