Customer Reviews

A History of Latin America: c.1450 to the Present (Blackwell History of the World)

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

 

 

With a more accurate title, I would have happily given this book five stars. It is an informative and enjoable account up to independance from spain and portugal. It highlights differences between viceroyalties and presents a vivid picture of the people & changes in political climates until the early 1800s. After this, the pace becomes hurried and the conclusions vague. To really claim that it covers history to the present, it would need finer graining and more modern material to describe the development of distinct groups of nations. The first three quarters were so good that the postcolonial section was a dissapointment.

I agree with a past reviewer--Bakewell's is an excellent colonial history. As it enters the postcolonial, modern period, it becomes less so. It lacks detail and information because it covers the last two hundred years too quickly. For colonial history, I insist, it is really good and pithy. In that sense, it might be a helpful introductory reading for a student of the early Latin America.