Customer Reviews

The Epic of Latin America, Fourth edition

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My favorite history writer is Barbara Tuchman and I found some similarities between her and Mr. Crow in how they present history. They both bring a lot of the human element to history telling. I particularly enjoyed learning about Brasil's Dom Pedro II, who seems to get generally brushed over in history. One also gets a good feel for how and why the Latin American economic and political structures developed. It is extremely long, which is great for the amateur history buff, but probably not so great for the college student.

He does have some obvious biases and makes a liberal amount of commentaries. His subjectivity is easy to recognize, enjoyable to read, and he often makes some good points. I appreciate that he doesn't hold back on both praise and criticism of significant people or events. I have a much broader understanding of our southern neighbors and plan to read the book again.

This book is indeed very, very, very long, but I believe that is to be expected if one wants specific details about names, places and events that span 5 centuries. Mr. Crow's style is not as heavy as many historians, and I found the book an easy, if somewhat tedious read.

The author does get a little random in his thought processes later in the book, as though he was trying to meet a deadline, but didn't want to omit a single relevant thought.

The one theme in the book I found striking was Crow's seemingly constant need to act as an apologist for the Catholic church's role in the conquest and consolidation of the New World. He sometimes tries to justify the Church's actions before he tells the reader about the actual events, and sometimes he does this afterwards, but he does it pretty consistently. Perhaps he feels the prevailing bias against the Church's role in the conquest requires a little overstatement in the opposite direction, I don't know.

At least there is no effort to distort the facts. The author lays them out, warts and all. He just repeatedly tries to suggest that, well, "Everyone else was doing it, too!"

Another peculiarity I noted was Crow's repeated assertion that there is no racial conflict in Latin America, apparently due to the fact that early Portugese and Spanish explorers and colonists brought none of their countrywomen along, and felt free to mate with as many of the indigenous females as possible.

His book repeatedly makes it clear that the Spanish and Portuguese literally used up the indigenous people without reservation, even as they bred themselves a newer, more hardy race of mestizos, yet he consistently commends the conquerors for being so racially "open-minded". If he means being willing to make use of whatever human lifeforms one can find for breeding stock or beasts of burden, I guess maybe he's right.

Nevertheless, I thought it was good book for anyone seriously in this period of world history, and would recommend it.

A comprehensive look at various historical and cultural elements of Latin America. I appreciate the scholarly, yet easy-to-read approach. Refreshing in its story-oriented approach to detail.

Overall, I thought the book was very good. It is an extremely comprehensive look at the development of Latin American Culture and Society from pre-Mayan through the present. Crow's analysis is well documented and generally pertinent. There are palces where he is a bit excessive in the numerical or statistical evidence, but they are the exception. He does an excellent job of developing the cultural ascept of the book. His analysis of the nature of the different Latin American Societies is cogent, pervasive, and seamless. Thus, the reader is drawn naturally to the same conclusions as Crow with regards to the future of the Latin American Nations. They are the natural progression of his analysis of the culture from the beginning. There are, however, some faults with the book. First, Crow can be overly grandiloquent (Irony intended). "Why use a five dollar word when a ten-cent one will suffice?" It is a slight distraction from the points he makes. In addition, his later chapters tend to become somewhat more disjointed. There are obvious places where arguements are out of place or out of order. He interjects points on escapist literature in the middle a discussion on political reform and then moves back to political reform. No matter how interrelated the matters are, it is distracting. The final word on the book is not a criticism as much as it is an advisory. This book is long and dense. It is justified in the incredible job that Crow does coerviong the subject completely, but it may deter all but the most determined of readers.

I have read this book many times. It was my reference bibile as i majored in Latin American Studies. Although long it is an easy read. Crow does what many other authors fail to accomplish, he maintains his objectivity. It is a good book for non-Latin Americans to gain insight into Latin America. Great book, dedicate a summer to it.

Unlike Cookie 65, I don't want fast-food history, and Crow's wealth of details in this general history of Latin America is greatly appreciated. Crow gives us all the details in a very well-written fashion, because history is IN the details! The Skidmore/Smith book cookie 65 mentions is also a nice introductory volume on Latin America, very suited towards undergraduates. However, the Crow book has a greater richness of detail that will serve both the history buff and the student and/or business person seeking greater understanding of this important regional neighborhood. Highly recommended.

Generally, this is a very comprehensive and enjoyable summary of Latin American history, starting with the Mayas, the Incas and the Aztecs. It provides particularly helpful insight on the development of government and cultural traditions. The first two hundred years of history following the European arrival in the Americas is particularly enjoyable reading, because of the storytelling style. The 19th century and 20th century history is a little tougher sledding, at times a little disjointed and perhaps long on opinion. I would have also expected more coverage on the Caribbean, especially Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. That said, this was a good read from the perspective of someone who frequently doesn't enjoy history books.

History is one of the very tough subjects to write about in a fair and balanced way. After all history varies tremendously according to who the ultimate winners are, and in the battle of colonialism and conquest of the Americas, this is specially true.

And for this reason I am quite surprised that the author, not being of Spanish descent, leans so favorable towards the "brave" exploits of the conquistadors. I struggled to keep an open mind to his writings but the tone of what happened seems so one sided that it becomes distracting.

Another very annoying feature is that writer used one too many times the terms "barbaric" and "primitive" when describing the ancient cultures of the Americas, the Maya, the Peruvian empire and of the ancient Toltecs. The author insists that we should not glamorize the ancient and primitive "empires" of the Americas as to see them as to what they were.

Mr. Crow goes as far as to say that in now way, any of the ancient cultures of the Americas came even close to the achievements of the Romans and the Greeks. He goes as far as saying that in the Americas nothing compared to the beauty and majesty of buildings such as the Parthenon and the Roman Coliseum. Statements like this are specially strange considering that Chichen Itza in the Yucatan peninsula, for instance, has just been declared one of the great new ancient marvels of the world. Or, as any traveler would attest, there are few ancient ruins that rival the beauty and power of Machu Picchu or Teotihuacan.

I commend a gringo such as John Crow for taking interest in writing about the Americas, but I would take this "history" with a grain of salt and read other authors and version of the stories, so you can make your own informed decisions of what really happened. Or even better take time to visit the many beautiful and mysterious places the Americas have to offer.

I highly recommend this book for folks traveling to Latin America on business or pleasure. Your visit will be warmly enriched as a result, and you'll be more empathetic to cultural differences, understanding that the economic, religious, and political circumstances of Latin America today were not created in a vacuum, but rather are the consequences of deep-seated historical events which began in the times of the "Conquista" and their search for the "El Dorado".

I remember the first time I flew into Buenos Aires. It was on a crisp clear cloudless morning, and the plane came in from Uruguay across the broad grey flow of River Plate and circled the vast expanse of Buenos Aires around its southern peripheri before coming in to land at the airport on the city's eastern approaches. I will never forget that fly-in, because beneath me I saw the Pampas for the first time. Vast. Even from the height of the plane I could not even glimpse the perimeter, only marvel at the gentle curvature of the planet defined in endless green. And as we decended I saw that the little specks of grey on the ground were morning mist-banks in cattle paddocks, stocked with fat bovine beasts living good lives before facing the butcher's knife. And just then, reading "The Epic of Latin America", I came across a lovely passage which captured exactly my feeling at this first encounter with the Pampas: "Under the wings of an air liner it strokes past like some forgotten utopia, all fair, all flat, all limitless, yet so supremely satisfying to the weary eye that it suggests the somnolent soft murmur of a final dream" (J. Crow, The Epic of Latin America, p. 346). This book, flawed in so many ways, occassionally lapses into genius.