Results by title

This volume brings together essays written over three decades on Bolivian history and politics. The book opens with a contemporary survey of the new government of the MAS headed by Evo Morales. Subsequent chapters review the neoliberal experiments of the 1980s and 1990s, the strategic and intellectual failures of Che Guevara's guerrilla foco; the origins of the Revolution of 1952; explanations for the dominance of the caudillos of the 19th century; and the extraordinary story of Francisco Burdett O'Connor, whose life combined liberation struggles on both sides of the Atlantic.

Looking into Brazil's recent experience of democracy is an arduous undertaking, given the complexities of a country of continental size and great regional contrasts, where areas of prosperity and wealth mingle with underdevelopment and poverty. This book looks at some of the important issues involved in building up a democracy and keeping it working. How should we assess Brazil's experience of democracy? To what extent has the emergence of a democratic regime improved Brazilians' social, economic, and political life? Has democracy been consolidated to the point of making a political breakdown unthinkable or improbable? These are questions that any student of Brazil has to address. The answers to them, however, are far from simple.
Contributors include Edmund Amann (School of Economic Studies, University of Manchester, UK), Maria Celi Scalon (Insituto Universitario de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Carlos Antonio Costa Ribeiro (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil), Mauricio Coutinho (Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil), Argelina Cheibub Figueiredo (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil), James Dunkerley (Institute of Latin American Studies and Queen Mary, University of London, UK), Antonio Sergio A. Guimaraes (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil), Anthony Hall (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK), Fernando Limongi (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil), Fiona Macaulay (Centre for Brazilian Studies, University of Oxford and Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London, UK), Celso Martone (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil), Leandro Piquet Carneiro (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil), Mauro Porto (Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil), and Brasilio Sallum Jr. (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil).

This book adopts a variety of disciplinary, thematic, and country-based approaches to the complex and contested issues around the character of the nation-state in Latin America. In recent years there has been a great deal of scholarly interest in this topic from the viewpoint of cultural and literary studies, but Latin America remains under-represented in general historical and sociological theories of nationhood. The authors seek to develop debate and research on the topic through case-studies (including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Spain), historiographical review, and themes such as the role of violence, military conscription and pensions, money and the role of finance, early notions of development, the ambiguous role of liberalism, and how to evaluate the reach and qualities of the nation-state.
Contributors include Miguel Angel Centeno (Princeton University), Malcolm Deas (St Antony's College, Oxford), James Dunkerley (Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London), Paul Gootenberg (State University of New York at Stony Brook), Alan Knight (St Antony's College, Oxford), Colin Lewis (London School of Economics), Fernando Lopez Alves (University of California, Santa Barbara), David McCreery (Georgia State University), Florencia Mallon (University of Wisconsin), Seemin Qayum (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Guy Thomson (University of Warwick), and Steven Topik (University of California, Irvine). James Dunkerley is director of the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London, and also professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London. He is coeditor of the Journal of Latin American Studies. His most recent books are Americana:The Americas in the World, around 1850 (or 'Seeing the Elephant' as the Theme for an Imaginary Western) (2000) and Warriors and Scribes: Essays in the History and Politics of Latin America (2000).