Central America Books

This book discusses the contempory and historical economies of Mexico, Chile, and Argentina. It is an easy read, with little technical jargon. In addition, it lucidly discusses the elementary probelms of development economics, notably rent-seeking, and details the benefits and benevolence of free market economies. The book focuses on the insitutions and environments that have encouraged unproductive and impoverishing political policies. Furthermore, they discuss the effects of these institutions and policies. The authors are not shy in their dislike for socialism, but they support their case very well with theoretical discussion and empirical evidence.

This is an excellent introdution to Latin American Economies, Development Economics, or Foreign Affairs. Highly Recommended!

This is an important book for future generations. The revolutionary work done by Pinochet and his advisors, copied not only in Latin America but the world at large.

It is also important that this book calls Pinochet by his real name, a Capitalist. These days anybody that doesn't agree with marxists-liberals is a fascist.

I'm still waiting to see how fascists implement free-market reforms like Pinochet did.

In summary: Pinochet is a Capitalist, fundamentalist if you will, who allied with the U-S during the Cold War, which was the fight between Capitalism and Communism. For a Latin American fascist look at Peron.

Wether you are in favor or against Pinochet it is important to get your facts straight.

In The Cattle Towns, Robert Dykstra demonstrates how five Kansas towns--Dodge City, Ellsworth, Caldwell, Abilene, and Wichita--developed through a complex set of conflicts that bred progress. Instead of adding to the frontier myth of wild and violent cattle towns, Dykstra builds upon studies of urban history and applies them to the developing frontier to create a local, social history that has national relevance.

Success or failure of a town depended on a number of variables including location, promotion, and people. Location as related to the county center, railroad lines, and especially for this study, cattle trails, played major roles in determining town futures. Advertisements in newspapers located between the Kansas cattle towns and the source of the cattle herds in Texas lured the trail drivers north. The most important element in the future of the cattle towns, however, was the local population.

Although the town newspapers often gave the impression that residents of the town and surrounding areas spoke in a unified voice, that was usually not the case. Disagreements between businessmen and rural folk, ranchers and farmers, natives and foreign-born, and reformers and vice practitioners were frequent. Dykstra contradicts earlier studies that claimed successful town development on mutual cooperation and shows how progress was made through such differences.

The differences over town policy provided a forum for area residents to discuss the future vision of their town. Whether the discussion was over alcohol, gambling, prostitution, or the movement of the splenic flu deadline, the result was an exchange of ideas focused on improving the town. Town businessmen, for example, sympathized with the reformers who sought to improve the moral values of the town by eliminating vices, but not at the financial cost of losing the trail drivers who were attracted by such vices and spent their funds liberally throughout town.

Due to the advancement of technology and the progression of settlers into the once open Kansas frontier, the cattle towns shifted their focus from cattle to the more consistent industry of agriculture. The westward movement of settlers altered the routes of cattle drives away from towns like Abilene and Dodge City and railroads continued to expand their coverage, removing these towns from the cattle industry. Despite the moral vices that accompanied it, the cattle industry between 1867 and 1885 helped provide an immediate economic base that developed towns and laid the groundwork for future success.

Utilizing information from period newspapers, letters, maps, government documents, and previous studies, Dykstra creates a well-written study that explores urban aspirations and rivalry in a frontier setting. By examining the motivations of individuals and groups in the cattle towns, Dykstra has made a valuable contribution to town building on the changing frontier.

"One of the most intelligent, interesting, and worthwhile contributions to the field of Western history in some time. [The author] has managed to say something rather basic about American culture in general." -- William H. Goetzmann. "Excellent . . . readable and persuasive. . . . One of the most refreshing and rewarding approaches to be applied to western history topics in many years, for [the author] is asking basic questions about social process and the nature of urban society." -- Howard Roberts Lamar.

Celebrating The Humanities: A Half-century Of The Search Course At Rhodes College is an intriguing look at the life-cycle of that college's renowned Humanities course, which has been in existence longer than at any other comparable liberal-arts institution. The book looks at the genesis for developing the course at Rhodes (then Southwestern) during the crucible of World War II and its evolution over the years. A number of individuals involved with "The Man Course" (as it was dubbed) contribute individual chapters that touch on their era of involvement touching on the curricula and the changes that came about. The course itself sounds utterly fascinating, incorporating some of the greatest literature of the modern world from the time of antiquity to the present, yet covering it in a colloquium style course setting. I would love to take this course, but to be honest the amount of reading that is covered in the short span of time is most daunting indeed!

Michael Nelson, the editor, does a good job of keeping the text coherent and cogent, which is frequently a problem with incorporating many different authors with varying styles of writing. The book is most gripping when covering the origins of the course and its early years but loses steam towards the middle. I had expected more dramatic tension when the book got into the era that encompassed the Civil Rights and Counter-Culture Revolution of the 1960s, but it was strangely unexciting, which is surprising considering the upheaval in Memphis during that era. It was again exciting towards the end when it gave a rather lively encapsulation of what it is like to take the course today that left me wondering why more universities aren't attempting the same thing. Celebrating the Humanities is a compelling argument for the bolstering of the Humanities at campuses everywhere and should be a rallying cry for this effort, yet my hunch is few outside of academia will ever read this, which is profoundly sad.

Mr. Nelson is god. One should read everything that he writes. In two thousand years people will be awaiting the second coming of Mike Nelson. Rhodes is a wonderful college, and I wish that I had been wise enough ( in my college days) to shun Yale for such a personalized undergraduate education

When I read "Central America in My Heart", I travel through the mystical landscape of Latin America and instantly feel the author's love for his homeland. The poems, named after all the major cities of Central America, evoke images of Paradise where pure love and time carry the reader to an eternal land of breathtaking beauty. Once settled in the U.S., we feel the author's realization that he can never go back to the daily memories of his childhood in his native land. Finally when he returns home, he describes the political and economical injustices through his political poems, which call on all of us to awaken to the notion of relentless commitment and love to our family, to our immediate community and to the inequities of our world. You will set this book down, inspired and moved to do something that makes a difference in the lives of those less fortunate that you.

Central America in My Heart is a heartfelt and mystical collection of poems that make you feel the brevity of life, the love of the homeland and the intensity of justice and freedom. In a beautiful English translation the poems describe the search for meaning in life and the breathtaking landscapes and culture of Latin America. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book one day at a time and I highly recommend it. It is a great book that can help with daily contemplation. The poetry reminded me of Pablo Neruda.

The book has all the substance and objectivity of a scholarly work by someone who has done research in Chiapas for over a decade, but unfolds with all the suspense of a good novel. It is the definitive account to date on this very important topic and a significant contribution to the debate on indigenous rights.

You will be hard pressed to find another book written with this level of analysis. The Zapatista rebellion was not an overnight reaction to a single set of economic rules, but is rather the manifestation of centuries of injustices, financial hardships and lack of political efficacy. This book explains the multitude of issues and events leading to the Zapatista rebellion. Dr. Harvey is a scholar who understands the political complexity and communicates this for all to understand.

This Chicago travel guide is fun to read and will get you excited for your upcoming trip. It is broken down into useful chapters (ex. Dining, Notable Potables, Shopping, etc.), with entertaining entries (Best hotel that's crazy about Chicago, Best club where both the food and the music are "hot"). This is one of the best Chicago travel guides available, and it is especially great for lovers of Chicago who return again and again wanting to discover a new, wonderful aspect to "our kind of town."

Five years later and most of the places in this book still rank right up there.

This book is perfect for prose selections. I am doing a selection of Fiorella which is absolutely beautifully written and and very moving. I really enjoyed it very much.

This book has moving stories of war told from many different countries, which is helpful for building reading skills, vocabulary, and building on historical knowledge in the classroom. I have used the stories from Russia, France, Italy and Germany the most in my history class.

This book provides both a useful overview of urban social history in turn-of-the-century Rio de Janeiro and a unique and convincing analysis of how poor urban and suburban residents responded to urban renewal projects. The author places her analysis in an engaging, accessible, and accurate narrative of the city's broader history, weaving together the findings of a broad array of specialized secondary works. Her own primary research on popular protests provides a crucial part of this history, and her conclusions are suggestive of how popular movements might be understood elsewhere as well. The book shows that the effects of undemocratic urban administration can be disasterous for the least powerful sectors of the population. Yet is also shows that the urban poor were by no means "marginalized," nor did they decline to participate in orderly, legal forms of protest. Riots and violence exploded in Rio only after poor residents had tolerated arbitrary and violent government implementation of urban policies, and after they had found other avenues of appeal to government officials closed. This book is effective in undergraduate and graduate courses alike. In addition to providing an excellent overview of Rio's early twentieth-century history, the book stimulates students to think critically about urbanization, class conflict, forms of protest, and the peculiar concerns of non-industrial nations to create images of order and civilization in the early twentieth century.

This a major addition to the social history of urban life in Brazil, and Latin America generally. By shifting the emphasis from workplace struggles to conflict over urban space, Meade allows us to rethink dramatic and sometimes puzzling episodes of popular protest in turn-of-the-century Rio de Janeiro (such as the revolt against compulsory smallpox vaccination). Her argument that these protests should be seen as part of the contest over capitalist modernization, and are no less "modern" than workplace struggles in nearby Sao Paulo, adds to the ongoing discussion of political consciousness as forming in struggles both within and beyond the point of production. Meade also explores the implications of "urban beautification" for the popular classes in a way that connects processes in Rio with broader global tendencies during the Age of Imperialism. Finally, the book is highly readable and accessible to the non-specialist, and can be used in courses ranging from introductory undergraduate surveys to graduate seminars.

Book is simply awsome. Intriguing characters, especially Hanna. Is she ready? Is she ready???

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is known the world over mostly for his novels, especially "One Hundred Years Of Solitude," and one non-fiction book on the drug wars in Colombia, but one of the least recognized of his jewels is "Clandestine In Chile: The Adventures Of Migue Littin," it is both a chronicle of an exiled artist's return to his homeland and a study of what Chile was like under the right-wing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. So infuriated was the regime when the book was published that Pinochet ordered thousands of copies to be burned Nazi-style. Like Marquez's novels, "Clandestine In Chile" is poetic and lush, heartwarming and heartbreaking as Littin returns to Chile in disguise to shoot a film on Chile under Pinochet and finds himself wandering a nation changed by rabid capitalism and silenced by intense fascism. In one tense moment Littin lies down in his hotel room bed, only to realize that the city of Santiago is DEAD SILENT after Pinochet's curfew is implemented, no cars, not even dogs make a sound. In beautiful prose Marquez describes the epic landscapes of Chile, of the Andes and the mining communities where the workers almost breath fire from the coal they mine. He chronicles the revolutionary days of Salvador Allende, Chile's and the world's first elected socialist president who sparked the fury of the Nixon White House and was overthrown in a September 11, 1973 coup by Pinochet's forces. We meet Chile's poor as they remember Allende and secretly keep mementos from his days in office before "The Terror" came and the Mapucho river flowed with the corpses of the fascist junta's innocent, often young victims. The passages where Littin and his crew shoot their film under the guise of an environmental documentary team are exciting as they try not to be discovered by the regime's informants and police force. At one point they film inside La Moneda presidential palace and come an inch away from Pinochet himself. Marquez obviously respects Littin very much and his admiration for the man and his work is palpable, and being a friend of Cuba's Fidel Castro, Marquez's contempt for Pinochet and the fascist system that was then in Chile is also evident. This adds a unique emotional intensity to the work, like the best non-fiction he brings history to life instead of just providing a kind of academic report. Film buffs will also enjoy this book for Littin's insights into the guerrilla filmmaking process as he gets his shots by any means necessary, always avoiding getting caught even under the most dangerous circumstances. "Clandestine In Chile" is a masterful book, and of the more underappreciated titles in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's remarkable catalogue.

Here is the last part of Aztecs' History in CHIMALPAHIN's compiling. It's followed by a precious kind of calendar by CHIMALPAHIN himself. A prime material to understand Aztecs' meaning of life. I'm waiting for the 4 other books of this exceptional collection of indigenous testimonies (Please excuse my bad English: I'm an usual French writer)

There are many "Codices" about MesoAmerica. This one is presented as a translate of primitive nahuatl compiling of Aztecs' History. An important contribution to Mexican History. The total collection counts 6 books; two are now available.