Faces of Latin America - Duncan Green

First published in 1991, Faces of Latin America has become the standard introductory text on the region. Widely used in teaching, it is also an accessible book for the general reader or traveler to the region. This edition has been extensively updated and reorganized with new photos, sidebars, charts, and graphs.

Faces of Latin America celebrates the vibrant history and culture of Latin America's people. Duncan Green takes the reader beyond the conventional media coverage of the drug trade, corrupt politicians and military leaders, death squads, or guerrilla movements familiar to us on the nightly news. 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, 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.