Faces of Latin America has sold more than 50,000 copies since it first
appeared in 1991, and is widely considered to be the best available
introduction in English to the economies, politics, demography, social
structures, environment and cultures of Latin America. Duncan Green and
Sue Branford take the reader beyond the conventional media's fixation on
the drug trade, corrupt politicians and military leaders, death squads,
and guerrilla movements to celebrate the vibrant history and culture of
Latin America's people. Faces of Latin America examines some of the key
forces--from conquest and the growth of the commodity trade, military
rule, land distribution, industrialization, and migration to civil wars
and revolutions, the debt crisis, neoliberalism, and NAFTA--shaping the
region's political and social history.
Green also analyzes the response to these transformations--the rise of
freedom fighters and populists, guerrilla wars and grassroots social
movements, union organizing and trade movements, liberation theology,
and the women's movement, sustainable development and the fight for the
rainforest, popular culture and the mass media--providing a fascinating
and unparalleled portrait of the continent.
This new edition is thoroughly updated and covers recent developments in
Latin America such as the growing costs of export agriculture, the rise
of Brazilian manufacturing, connections between the war on drugs and the
war on terror, the social costs of neoliberalism, the Argentinian
default, the search for new economic models in Venezuela and elsewhere,
the decline in direct U.S. military intervention in the region, growing
urbanization, urban poverty and casual employment, outmigration and the
importance of family remittances from abroad, rampant environmental
destruction, the struggles of indigenous movements, and more.
