Independence and Nation-Building in Latin America: Race and Identity in the Crucible of War reconceptualizes the history of the break-up of colonial empires in Spanish and Portuguese America. In doing so, the authors critically examine competing interpretations and bring to light the most recent scholarship on social, cultural, and political aspects of the period. Did American rebels clearly push for independence, or did others truly advocate autonomy within weakened monarchical systems? Rather than glorify rebellions and "patriots," the authors begin by emphasizing patterns of popular loyalism in the midst of a fracturing Spanish state. In contrast, a slave-based economy and a relocated imperial court provided for relative stability in Portuguese Brazil. Chapters pay attention to the competing claims of a variety of social and political figures at the time across the variegated regions of Central and South America and the Caribbean. Furthermore, while elections and the rise of a new political culture are explored in some depth, questions are raised over whether or not a new liberal consensus had taken hold. Through translated primary sources and cogent analysis, the text provides an update to conventional accounts that focus on politics, the military, and an older paradigm of Creole-peninsular friction and division. Previously marginalized actors, from Indigenous peoples to free people of color, often take center-stage. This concise and accessible text will appeal to scholars, students, and all those interested in Latin American History and Revolutionary History.

This book highlights historical explanations to and roots of present phenomena of violence, insecurity, and law enforcement in Central America. Violence and crime are among the most discussed topics in Central America today, and sensationalism and fear of crime is as present as the increase of private security, the re-militarization of law enforcement, political populism, and mano dura policies. The contributors to this volume discuss historical forms, paths, continuities, and changes of violence and its public and political discussion in the region. This book thus offers in-depth analysis of different patterns of violence, their reproduction over time, their articulation in the present, and finally their discursive mobilization.

Latin America’s diverse political and economic struggles and triumphs have captured the global imagination. The region has been a site of brutal dictators, revolutionary heroes, the Cold War struggle and as a place in which the global debt crisis has had some of its most lasting and devastating impacts. Latin America continues to undergo rapid transformation, demonstrating both inspirational change and frustrating continuities. This text provides a comprehensive introduction to Latin American development in the twenty-first century, emphasizing political, economic, social, cultural and environmental dimensions of development. It considers key challenges facing the region and the diverse ways in which its people are responding, as well as providing analysis of the ways in which such challenges and responses can be theorized. This book also explores the region’s historical trajectory, the implementation and rejection of the neoliberal model and the role played by diverse social movements. Relations of gender, class and race are considered, as well as the ways in which media and popular culture are forging new global imaginaries of the continent. The text also considers the increasing difficulties that Latin America faces in confronting climate change and environmental degradation. This accessible text gives an overarching historical and geographical analysis of the region and critical analysis of recent developments. It is accompanied by a diverse range of critical historical and contemporary case studies from all parts of the continent, providing readers with the conceptual tools required to analyse theories on Latin American development. Each chapter ends with a summary section, discussion topics, suggestions for further reading, websites and media resources. This is an indispensable resource for scholars, students and practitioners.

"This is a volume which will become invaluable to those attempting to guide the neophyte through the maze of politics in Latin America" - Journal of Latin American Studies Politics Latin America examines the role of Latin America in the world and its importance to the study of politics with particular emphasis on the institutions and processes that exist to guarantee democracy and the forces that threaten to compromise it. Now in its second edition and fully revised to reflect recent developments in the region, Politics Latin America provides students and teachers with an accessible overview of the region’s unique political and economic landscape, covering every aspect of governance in its 21 countries. The book examines the international relations of Latin American states as they seek to carve out a role in an increasingly globalised world and will be an ideal introduction for undergraduate courses in Latin American politics and comparative politics.

. . . a detailed and well-argued book. . . They provide an excellent historical narrative that explodes the twin myths that nation building is a new phenomenon and that the post-war recovery in Japan and Germany constitutes examples of successful nation building that can be replicated elsewhere. . . this book is essential reading for anyone engaged in this issue. Aidan Hehir, Political Studies Review Nation Building , Good Governance and Democratization are the main slogans guiding efforts to help societies in trouble. But nearly all such contemporary endeavors fail. This book is invaluable in exposing the causes for disappointing results and thus provides foundations for much improved policies. It is obligatory reading for all concerned with improving governance. Yehezkel Dror, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of The Capacity to Govern: A Report to the Club of Rome (2002) Reporting on the failure of international intervention, Jenkins and Plowden offer an illuminating analysis of an old but always ignored truth: institutions can be imported, not exported. Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, Getulio Vargas Foundation, São Paulo, Brazil Anyone contemplating giving aid to developing countries for economic development and governmental modernisation should read this wide-ranging and sharp analysis of why past programmes have brought disappointment and disillusion, and what can be done in the future to ensure more effective use of such aid. It goes beyond economics, encompassing history, culture, social factors and above all politics. It reflects the accumulated wisdom and scholarship of two experienced practical administrators and consultants, who have seen at first hand what can go wrong. G.W. Jones, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK This study by Jenkins and Plowden breaks new ground in the treatment of these issues. They get behind the generalities that often bedevil debates on governance and document in telling detail the myriad ways in which aid donors have systematically attempted to transfer and transplant an idealised (and largely Westernised) blueprint of governance to societies which were either unable or unwilling to receive them. Because their study is rooted not only in a careful survey of a comprehensive literature, but also in an informed understanding of the preferences and practices of the main aid donor organisations, it adds up to a devastating critique of the inadequacies and failures of this crucial aid strategy. A penetrating, well argued assessment of governance and public management reform in a global context, this timely book makes a much needed critical contribution to what has too often been an unthinking and superficial debate. It should be required reading for all students of comparative governance and public management. Martin Minogue, University of Manchester, UK Governance and Nationbuilding describes how aid donors have attempted to improve the performance of government in developing countries and countries in crisis. Kate Jenkins and William Plowden review the widespread lack of success, tracing the history of international government intervention, the roles of donors and recipient countries, the ways in which expert advice and support have been provided, and the donors own evaluation of their work. The authors outline and analyse the many obstacles to success, highlighting how the lack of effective learning from experience has led to repeated failures to improve the quality of government. The authors draw on the donors own assessments of the issues and on their own experience in the British Government and many other countries. They recommend a new approach to improving government: much less grandiose and more modest expectations on the part of the donors, and a new and enhanced role for recipient countries. This is a hard-hitting analysis of the problems and potential proposals for change by two experts in the field. Both have not only advised governments

Most conventional readings of the Cuban Revolution have seemed mesmerised by the personality and role of Fidel Castro, often missing a deeper political understanding of the Revolution's underlying structures, bases of popular loyalty and ethos of participation. In this ground-breaking work, Antoni Kapcia focuses instead on a wider cast of characters. Along with the more obvious, albeit often misunderstood, contributions from Che Guevara and Raúl Castro, Kapcia looks at the many others who, over the decades, have been involved in decision-making and have often made a significant difference. He interprets their various roles within a wider process of nation-building, demonstrating that Cuba has undergone an unusual, if not unique, process of change. Essential reading for anyone interested in Cuba's history and its future.

This book examines how Latin American countries and Spain tried to build modern and efficient state institutions for more than a century - without much success. The chapters tell how these countries went about constructing systems of authority that could manage their territories, support economic development, provide basic services, and promote a sense of national community. The book can serve as an introduction to nineteenth-century Latin America and Spain, as a historical guide to the process of state building, and as a tool for experts looking for the latest work by leading scholars in the field.

With ethnic and class-based national movements taking center stage in countries like Bolivia and Venezuela, nationalism has proven to be one of the most durable and important movements in Latin America. In understanding the history of these nationalisms, we can understand how Latin America relates to the rest of the world. As Latin America inserts itself into a rapidly globalizing world, understanding the changing nature of national identify and nationalism is key. By tracing the important historical origins of present-day Latin American nationalism, this book gives readers a thorough introduction to the subject. Only by understanding how nationalism came to be such an important social and political force, can we understand its significance today. In turn, understanding Latin American nationalism helps us understand how Latin America shapes, and is shaped by, a rapidly globalizing world.

With case studies covering Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Mexico, this is the first book to explore the links between gender and nationalism in the context of Latin America. It includes contributions from Latin American scholars to offer a unique and revealing view of the most important political and cultural issues.

Examining women writers from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Colombia, this book traces the contradictions inherent in revolutionary movements that, while arguing for the rights of all, remained ambivalent, at best, about the place of women. It reveals the complex role of women in shaping the vexed ideologies of independence.