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    Books on South American History

    I know this is an enormo topic that could fill dozens of books, but is there a decent highlights package out there? Waterstones in town has the Penguin History of Latin America, Open Veins of Latin America by Galeano, and Viva La Revolucion by Hobsbawm, which all look interesting. Are they any good? Are any others that you know? Can someone please tell me what to buy so I don't have to think?

    Muchos gracias.

    #2
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      #3
      Not when I type it, pal.

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        #4
        I enjoyed reading Liberators a few years ago but it could probably be balanced by other books less focussed on individuals (and not written by former Tory MPs). Entertaining but not very academic or rigorous.

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          #5
          Very much not my field, but I would recommend starting with a survey (like the Penguin) before tackling someone like Galeano.

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            #6
            We have a pelican 2-volume book called The Twenty Latin Americas by Marcel Niedergang (trans from French). It has a lovely cover of map and flags and we used to leave it on the dining table to look up the basics about each country as it cropped up or occurred to us

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              #7
              I'd go with what Urs said. Penguin's history of Latin America is a not-overly boring survey. John Chasteen's Born in Blood and Fire is also supposed to be pretty good though I haven't read it. If you want national histories, I like Jonathan Brown's Brief History of Argentina. There are a couple of good ones about Brazil, too - Lilia Moritz Schwartz's "Brazil - a Biography" has got quite good reviews.

              But it;s a huge subject. It may be easier to pick a period and look for stuff. Lots of decent things on the 70s, for instance, and the guerilla warfare of the era (I find the Uruguyan Tupamaros to be the most interesting of the 70s movements). Biographies of Bolivar are useful to make sense of the whole independence thing (I;ve read one, which was kind of meh - the Revolutions podcast series 5 was better). Or one of the biographies of Eva Peron, maybe. Her story is quite bonkers.

              Historical fiction may be an easier way to get a grasp on things, in some ways. i really liked Mario Vargas Llosa's Feast of the Goat (apout the Trujillo dictatorship in DR) and The War at the End of the World (about the 1890 peasant revolt in Brazil). Jonathan Wilson's Angels with Dirty Faces is in some ways a pretty good intro ot Argentinian history, too.


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                #8
                Agreed re: Wilson (as I said when and indeed before it came out).

                You realise you could have asked this question in person a few weeks ago and my girlfriend would have had loads of recommendations, right? None of which you'd have been able to remember the next morning, of course. But still. Galeano is, like, the set text in these parts. More general and focussed on the twenty-first century movements across the continent (and published long enough ago that I read it shortly before moving here, which means it's probably about ten years old now), there's also Oliver Balch's Viva South America! which is very good. I found out last year that a couple of my British mates here are friends with him, because he lived here for quite a while (and then wrote that book on a big six-month overland trip which was his farewell tour before moving back to Europe).

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Anton Gramscescu View Post
                  There are a couple of good ones about Brazil, too - Lilia Moritz Schwartz's "Brazil - a Biography" has got quite good reviews.
                  Seconding this-I got it out of the library and thought it was quite good. I read another Brazil book from the library but can't remember the title now.

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                    #10
                    Alex Cuadros' "Brazillionaires"? That was ok. Useful to understand the corruption end of things, anyway.

                    Dancing with Devils in the City of God - narrow, just about Rio, but also pretty good.

                    Last edited by Anton Gramscescu; 03-05-2019, 03:17.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Anton Gramscescu View Post
                      Penguin's history of Latin America is a not-overly boring survey.
                      I wonder if anyone from Penguin reads this forum They might want to quote that on the back cover of the next edition.

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                        #12
                        These things are all relative. Survey histories are really hard to make interesting.

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                          #13
                          I haven't read it, but I remember JV recommending At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig by John Gimlette to me as a good introduction to Paraguay, probably one of the more forgotten countries of South America. From what I remember from looking it up after that, it's sort of half history, half first-person travel writing, but it's supposed to be pretty entertaining.

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                            #14
                            That sounds quite excellent. On my list.

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                              #15
                              Jonathan Wilson
                              Angels With Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina

                              It's apparently got some history in it but someone else who's read it would know more.

                              Alex Bellos
                              Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life

                              This isn't bad on both the football and the politics.

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by jefe View Post

                                Seconding this-I got it out of the library and thought it was quite good. I read another Brazil book from the library but can't remember the title now.
                                I was kinda wrong-it was about Brazil in the WWII period. Still a good snapshot of the timeframe though.

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                                  #17
                                  I've only read one - Bolivar: American Liberator, by Marie Arana. As I say, wasn't wild about it, but don't know if others are any better.

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                                    #18
                                    Open Veins of Latin America is very good. Obviously about a quite-distant period now, in some ways, but a very worthwhile and eloquent read

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                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by E10 Rifle View Post
                                      Open Veins of Latin America is very good. Obviously about a quite-distant period now, in some ways, but a very worthwhile and eloquent read
                                      Couldn't agree more. An excellent read.

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                                        #20
                                        Seconded/Thirded/Fourthed on Open Veins of Latin America. I'd recommend giving a book or two about Chile a go, always found their history and role in determining South America's power balances fascinating. Tanya Harmer's book Allende's Chile and the Inter-American Cold War is great although quite period specific. Simon Collier's A History of Chile is broader - covers the significant role Chile played in the history of post-colonial South America - it's a bit dry though, but I'd really recommend having a good look at the post-colonial period and later 19th c in some book or another. If you can find a copy of Salt in the Sand by Lessie Frazier then that's fantastic, but it's expensive to buy tbh.

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                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by Incandenza View Post
                                          I haven't read it, but I remember JV recommending At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig by John Gimlette to me as a good introduction to Paraguay, probably one of the more forgotten countries of South America. From what I remember from looking it up after that, it's sort of half history, half first-person travel writing, but it's supposed to be pretty entertaining.
                                          Life, and I mean life on planet Earth, and I mean our experience on planet Earth, is much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much different what you expected when you read a book that is quite cool, that you enjoy greatly and it changes your life....that contains a rumor and allegation so virulently destructive and you meet and hang out and drink beers with and enjoy the company of the children of the parent that was slandered in said book that was life-changing previously and you see personally how rotten an allegation is over the course of decades and generations.

                                          Knowing what I know now, even how amazing the story is, I would find it impossible to recommend today in 2019. The 0.01% of allegations that are unsubstantiated are enough to poison everything else.

                                          This include Anthony Bourdain's episode in Paraguay as well.

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                                            #22
                                            Well, I'm intrigued. Stroessner was just misunderstood?

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                                              #23
                                              All Stroessner bits were great, and all Mario Abdo stories were entirely prescient in light of his son winning the presidency decades after the book was written. Much of the book is brilliant, especially with the history from 1810-1989.

                                              But there's a completely unsubstantiated allegation he throws out about a guy who murdered his mother to steal her restaurant in the book, and seeing how that's affected his kids really puts a different tinge on things. Especially that they've had to live for decades with that allegation.

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                                                #24
                                                Oof. Puts me in mind of Football Against The Enemy, which includes a quote reported in good faith on Argentina's supposed doping in the 1978 final (describing Kempes having to do laps of the Monumental running track after the game to get all the juice out of his system, if I remember correctly) which I've since heard owes as much to the fact that Kuper was young and credulous when he wrote the book (21, I believe) as it does to whether the things he was told about actually, y'know, happened.

                                                (To be clear, although I assume you realise this, I was being flippant re: Stroessner. Although on this continent you can never be too sure. A few years ago I befriended an English politics student who was down here writing a thesis, and he got talking in the pub I took you in to a Chilean girl and was surprised to the point of wondering whether she joking when she told him she loved Pinochet. I subsequently joined the conversation and wondered about it as well. She removed any doubt we had on this matter when she got up to leave, reached the door of the really rather busy pool room and wheeled round and started chanting PI-NO-CHET! PI-NO-CHET! in our direction as we frantically tried to look like we hadn't just spent an hour or so talking to her.)

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                                                  #25
                                                  Understood. I took it as a joke. It has been eye-opening to see coworkers on their FB pages post "We Will Always Miss You, My General" Stroessner tributes. And Marito straight up ran on the "good parts" of the dictatorship.

                                                  One of those aforementioned brothers always suggests Lily Tuck's "The News From Paraguay" instead of "Tomb." It's a novel, but it is quite good. As is Nigel Hawthorne's "The Empress of South America."

                                                  I have always thought Nicole Kidman HAS to be in a Eliza Lynch film.

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