South America Books

This book answers a lot of questions about the Latino culture, experience, past, present and future. Some essays tell stories, while others are plain facts. This book has about 670 pages, yet it is a fast and informative read where you can't put the book down. It is organized by section of topic and gives suggested reading lists at the end of each chapter. A good introductory to Latin American studies, historically, culturally, and sociologically. It gives a lot of information for the price, you will not regret buying this book.

Excellent book, but know in advance that this book is heavily skewed toward legal topics and lawyer authors. While much of the legal writing is dense for lay readers, it is often well worth the effort. The selections authored by Margaret Montoya, Kevin Johnson, editor Richard Delgado, and non-attorney Gloria Anzaldua were the very best of this remarkably well-written anthology.

Deseo conocer el último libro de Ricardo Levene (padre) sobre historia argentina

Deseo conocer el último libro de Ricardo Levene (padre) sobre historia argentina

I really enjoyed this book since I grew up in Lexington, NC...a lot of history in Lexington I didn't know. I also gave copy to my best friend since we grew up together and were neighbors in Lexington.

I gave this book to my mother-in law who is from Lexington NC and she loved it! There are a lot of pictures to think of good old memories.
I think a book like this is very special.

I wouldn't be a true historian if I didn't say I have lots of questions after reading Ms. Hollingsworth's book. But, that's a sign of a good writer...leaving your reader wanting more. The writing style is engaging and is based on some unique and comprehensive sources. This book is all you need to read to know the real story of Lexington.

Since the Wright book about Lexington appeared in the 1980's I have been hoping for a more extensive, up-to-date history of the town in which I grew up. This is it. Ms. Hollingsworth is a gifted writer. Her lively, articulate and entertaining account of Lexington from its earliest days to the present left me aching for more. She has obviously thoroughly researched an enormous quantity of primary sources in writing it and I have visions of bulging files somewhere that she will see fit to use to expand and broaden her story. This was one book I wanted to go on forever. I made the mistake of starting it at bedtime and finding myself unable to put it down. It is so rich in history and local color that I found myself reading very slowly when I am normally a fast reader. I didn't want go miss a thing. Of course, I'm sure I will re-read it within a month or so and use it as a reference forever.

about the previous review, please check your high school geography books, may be it are wrong also, México, isn't in Central America, México's history can't be explained as from the desintegration of "las provincias unidas de centroamerica", nada que ver, no manches guey...los mexicanos no somos centroamericanos ni sudacas....

I used Woodward's essay on the liberal-conservative struggle in post independence Central America in writing a paper on the dissolution of the Central American Federation. It makes a well laid out argument, is well noted, and has a few great quotes in it if your writing a paper.

My son and daughter (12 and 14) both love the Rani adventures. They are true stories with great adventure.

We recommend all three books.

This book about Mr. Snell's adventures in the South Americanjungle as a missionary kid will keep you laughing all the way through.It goes from one hilarious situation to another, and the situations are so funny, it is hard to believe they really happened. In this book you will see what happens to an American living in a different country and culture.

This is a gem, written with great respect for the indigenous people who live aound Lake Titicaca, well-annotated and with wonderful photographs by the author. Orlove has broad interests - anthropology, economics, natural history, environmental issues, to name a few, and a talent for accessing interesting memories. He conveys his astute observations in clear and vivid prose.The book is organized nicely - I especially liked the material in the final chapter, entitled "Paths", which offers an antidote to the sad fact that roads and highways are so often destructive to local people and to biodiversity. Paths, literal or metaphorical, also provide valuable linkages and essential connections among the various components of this remote but very interesting and community with ancient roots. Orlove provides the reader with a sense of having traveled those paths for a short while with him.

(Planeta.com Journal) -- Lines in the Water (University of California Press, 2002), a beautifully written ethnography of rural fishermen and their families. The book's subtitle "Nature and Culture at Lake Titicaca" specifies the center of action, but the scope is much broader and deeper. It's actually hard to find the words to say how delightful this book is. Author Ben Orlove is an environmental science professor at the University of California, Davis, and his book is based on three decades of trips to Peru and Bolivia. The book is a showcase of fresh writing and a major contribution to the literature about South America. Orlove provides a frank account of the role academics themselves play. He includes himself in this story and shares candid observations -- from his reactions to office politics to daydreaming about museums. This book is highly recommended. Eco travelers visiting Lake Titicaca would do well to read this book in advance.

Trotsky once wrote that of the three great tragedies in life- hunger, sex and death- revolutionary Marxism, which was the driving force behind his life and work, mainly concerned itself with the struggle against hunger. That observation contains an essential truth about the central thrust of the Marxist tradition. However, as Trotsky demonstrates here, Marxist methodology cannot and should not be reduced to an analysis of and prescription for that single struggle. Here Trotsky takes on an aspect of the struggle for mass cultural development.

In a healthy post-capitalist society mass cultural development would be greatly expanded and encouraged. If the task of socialism were merely to vastly expand economic equality, in a sense, it would be a relativity simple task for a healthy socialist society in concert with other like-minded societies to provide general economic equality with a little tweaking after vanquishing the capitalism mode of production. What Marxism aims for, and Trotsky defends here, is a prospect that with the end of class society and economic and social injustice the capacity of individual human beings to reach new heights of intellectual and creative development should flourish. That is the thought that underpins Trotsky's work here as he analyzes various trends in Russian literature in the immediate aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917. In short, Marxism is certainly not a method to be followed in order to write great literature but it does allow one to set that literature in its social context and interrelatedness.

You will find no Deconstructionist or other fashionable literary criticism here. Quite the contrary. Here Trotsky uses his finely tuned skill as a Marxist to great effect as he analyzes the various trends of literature as they were affected (or not affected) by the October Revolution and sniffs out what in false in some of the literary trends. Mainly, at the time of writing, the jury was still out about the prospects of many of these trends. He analyzes many of the trends that became important later in the century in world literature, like futurism constructivism, and others- some of which have disappeared and some of which still survive.

The most important and lasting polemic which Trotsky raised here, however, was the fight against the proponents of `proletarian culture'. The argument put forth by this trend maintained that since the Soviet Union was a workers state those who wrote about working class themes or were workers themselves should, in the interest of cultural development, be given special status and encouragement (read: a monopoly on the literary front). Trotsky makes short shrift of this argument by noting that, in theory at least as its turned out, the proletarian state was only a transitional state and therefore no lasting `proletarian culture' would have time to develop. Although history did not turn out to prove Trotsky correct the polemic is still relevant to any theory of mass cultural development.


One of the results of the publication of this book is that many intellectuals, particularly Western intellectuals, based some of their sympathy for Trotsky, the man and fallen hero on his literary analysis and his ability to write. This was particularly true during the 1930's here in America where those who were anti-Stalinist but were repelled by the vacuity of the Socialist Party were drawn to him. A few, like James T. Farrell (Studs Lonigan trilogy), did this mostly honorably. Most, like Dwight MacDonald and Sidney Hooks, etc. did not and simply used that temporary sympathy as a way station on their way to anti-Communism. Such is the nature of the political struggle.

A note for the politically- inclined who read this book. Trotsky wrote this book in 1923-24 at the time of Lenin's death and later while the struggle for succession by Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev was in full swing. While Trotsky did not recognize it until later (nor did others, for that matter) this period represented the close of the rising tide of the revolution. Hereafter, the people who ruled the Soviet Union, the purposes for which they ruled and the manner in which they ruled changed dramatically. In short, Thermidor in the classical French revolutionary expression was victorious. Given his political position why the hell was Trotsky writing a book on literary trends in post-revolutionary society at that time?

This is simply one of the most important books of the 20th Century. Trotsky wrote this book at the request of Lenin who edited it. They saw fighting against those who wanted to impose a so-called "proletarian" culture as the official culture of the Soviet Union, as a threat to a real Marxist understanding of culture. Judging culture by its explicit politics, rather than by its expression of human life, Trotsky explains, is as far from Marxism as you can get. Trotsky explains that even some of the most reactionary minded writers have create some of the most stirringly real and vibrant literature, how to road to real socialism will come by giving working people full and free access to the best and the worst of the literature and art that capitalism has produced. No one who reads this book will think that the garbage that passed for cultural theory in the Soviet Union under Stalin and his successors or under Mao and his successors has anything to do with socialism or Marxism

This is a valuable set of case studies on development projects that actually benefit the grassroots. Although set in Bolivia, many of the lessons apply to other parts of the developing world. The book is well written and would be a great text for a course in development studies.

The intimate travel details and encounters with prospective project developers in Bolivia are revealed in this book. You read about the many projects that the IAF has sponsored, successful at times and not, it is great to know that these projects have been throughly researched by IAF employees.

It makes you feel good to see U.S. dollars go into super positive grassroots projects.

The projects included in this book are diverse and very intriguing. Highly recommended!

Look No Further is a captivating debut novel, set in the years after the Korean War. A young woman falls in love with an muckraker grad student who is also a war veteran, and dares to take a job teaching English as a second language in Colombia. She discovers a nation in the middle of a struggle for democracy, and must adapt to the difficulties of marriage and daily life in a strange new culture. A sometimes gritty, always powerfully charged novel of love, cross-cultural relations, political fallout, and the drive of the human spirit set against the often harsh limits of reality, Look No Further compells the reader's attention to the very end.

Suzanne Hart reaches adulthood in 1958 while a student in the Midwest. Intrigued by the Beat movement and beguiled by her love for the man in a black turtleneck sweater, she succumbs to the lure of South America for adventure and to use her training to teach English-as-Second-Language. It was very interesting to see what university life was like for a young women in the late '50's, and then newly married life in Colombia. And the final chapter will keep you on the edge of your seat!