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John Charles Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America, New York & London 2001
Peadar Kirby, Introduction to Latin America, London 2003
Ronaldo Munck, Contemporary Latin America, Basingstoke 2003
Howard J Wiarda, The Soul of Latin America: The Cultural and Political Tradition, New Haven & London 2001
Howard J Wiarda & Harvey F Kline, An Introduction to Latin American Politics and Development, Boulder 2001
As the 1990s came to a close, a whole host of new introductory books on Latin America seemed to signal the time for yet another assessment of the continent's development. Latin America's history so far has been a complex story of half-successes and half-failures. In particular, a major breakthrough on the socioeconomic front is still to occur. One recalls the bitter verdict once passed on the French King Louis XIV: "He possesses all the virtues and talents a man can possess, except one - the talent to make use of them". Latin America, endowed with all thinkable material and human resources, seems to parallel the unfortunate 17th century king, lacking this crucial capacity - to take advantage of its advantages.
An excellent starting-point is Peadar Kirby's Introduction to Latin America where first the two major theoretical frameworks, for long the main intellectual structures for interpretation and understanding of the continent - dependency theory and modernization theory - are outlined. Inevitable themes in Kirby's book, as indeed in all attempts to introduce this large continent to a broader public, are heterogeneity, contrasts and paradoxes. Drawing on a vast amount of academic literature, Kirby repeatedly points to the variety and complexity - both in conditioning factors, chosen strategies for development and actual achievements - as main explanation factors. He argues that modernization through globalization exacerbates existing inequalities on the continent, and shows that although the percentage of poor has remained stable or only slightly risen over the 1990s, the absolute number of poor persons has risen considerably due to population increase (pp 108f). Other indicators, such as per capita income, health indicators, infant mortality, education and literacy rates, show very much the same picture. Similarly, income inequalities have only decreased in Colombia, Honduras and Uruguay, and remain great across the continent (p 109). Recognizing the...