In this panoramic study of Latin America since independence, Thomas Wright critically examines processes of continuity and change in crucial colonial legacies through two hundred years of postcolonial history. The book is invaluable for understanding the historical weight of many cultural traits, attitudes, values, practices, and institutions that crystalized in colonial times and have continued to influence two centuries of ... Read moreindependent life. In clear and incisive language, it threads together complex political, socioeconomic, religious, and cultural developments, clarifying macroregional processes while providing detailed analyses of all the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries of the Americas. Textboxes, maps, images, and suggestions for further reading make it a persuasive learning tool. Highly recommended for any comprehensive course on Latin America.
Luis Roniger, Reynolds Professor of Latin American Studies, Wake Forest University Thomas Wright has written an engaging, intelligent, and valuable history of modern Latin America that will benefit students and specialists alike. Latin American since Independence places the region in a global context but also captures its great diversity.
Charles Walker, University of California, Davis This fresh introduction to Latin American history offers an enlightening and distinctly twenty-first-century perspective for students and general readers in our globalized world. Over two centuries, Wright shows, the international order has at every stage shaped five long-persisting features of the region's colonial legacy and made its societies what they are today.
Alexander Wilde, American University Thomas Wright has provided a sweeping survey of two hundred years of Latin American history spanning postcolonial times to the post-Cold War years. His book renders comprehensible the complexities of diverse histories without diminishing the importance of a common experience-and excels as an introductory text.
Louis A. Perez Jr., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Show Less