Customer Reviews

Latinoamérica: Presente y pasado (3rd Edition) (Spanish Edition)

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

 

 

This second edition of Fox's book is even better than the first. Fox is a master storyteller and has a keen understanding of his readership: undergraduate students of Spanish. I highly recommend this text for courses on Latin American history and culture. The book is rigorously researched, up-to-date, and fun to read. The exercises following each chapter's text help students reinforce basic understanding and can stimulate class discussion. I have found this text to be superior to many others that are available. Professor Fox's ability to synthesize major cultural trends and "forces of history" without being superficial is quite admirable. He is surprisingly insightful and demonstrates a breadth of knowledge that is highly unusual today. A great book.

Decent Spanish history book. Not much difference between this edition and the fourth. It is an easy read for a beginning Spanish student and I'd say that the reading is fairly interesting

It was exactly what I expected and it came before the expected arrival date. I was very happy with my purchase.

Some professors may find that Latinoamérica: Presente y Pasado by Arturo A. Fox is an adequate textbook to teach Latin American Civilization and Culture courses if they can overlook the typogragical errors like the one that asserts that Macchu Picchu is at "2.000 pies de altura", or "2,000 feet of altitude", or the personal intrusions of the author into his text, or worse, the careless use of expressions like "desaparecido", especially when discussing Argentinian authors such as Manuel Puig. For example, "el argentino Manuel Puig (1939 - 1990); prematuramente desaparecido,(...)." Such careless use of "disappeared", especially in the context of Argentina is simply unforgiveable calling on professors teaching the course and the textbook, as it does, to constantly correct the errors or the oversights in the book.
This book really becomes unacceptable when Prof. Fox addresses Cuba. He lets his own biography and personal antagonism toward Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution completely color his presentation of Cuba since the Revolution, asserting untruths and ignoring the historical record.

At the end of the semester,this book is going directly into the trash.

I recieved the book three days after the order and the book was in perfect condition.