What is Latin American History? surveys the development of this
vibrant and dynamic field of study in North America, Latin America, and
Europe. After briefly sketching the growth of the topic up to the 1960s,
Marshall Eakin focuses on the past half-century, from the dominance of
social history to the cultural turn. He surveys innovative work on
topics including slavery, indigenous peoples, race, the environment,
science, medicine, and gender, and ends with a discussion of the
emergence of the concepts of borderlands, the Atlantic world, and
transnational history - that both enrich and challenge the very idea of
Latin America.
This concise volume offers the first broad overview of Latin American
history and historiography for students, scholars, and the general
reader, outlining the key social, cultural, and political forces that
have shaped both Latin America and its study.