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Simon Bolivar: A Life

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I am a novice regarding South American history, though Simon Bolivar has always interested me. A trip to Ecuador, where I saw one of the Liberator's swords in Quito, further spurred my curiosity about him. For those who don't know, Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) was the George Washington of South America, a general who liberated Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, and Ecuador from Spanish rule. The country of Bolivia, which became a test case in the 1820s for Bolivar's constitutional ideas, is named after him.

Unfortunately, books about the general (and later president) are hard to find in the States. The most popular is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel "The General in His Labyrinth," which explored Bolivar's last, frustrated days. In the novel, "El Liberator" is succumbing to consumption and curses the Revolution he had unleashed. No English biography of Bolivar has been written in 50 years. To fill the gap in Bolivar historiography, John Lynch, an Emeritus professor of Latin American history at University of London, has produced a solid work of scholarship. His likely audience for this book would be graduate students about to study for their comprehensive exams or people who are somewhat familiar with Bolivar's accomplishments.

Lynch's book is informative, but isn't as easy to read as some biographies are, such as David McCullough's "John Adams." "Simon Bolivar: A Life" doesn't begin with Bolivar's birth, but an earthquake that rocked Venezuela (place of SB's birth) in 1812. The earthquake was seen by some royalist clergymen as divine punishment for Venezuelans revolting against the Spanish. Lynch's book is relatively brief (300 pages), but dense. One will not find short, reader-friendly paragraphs in these pages. The author does not write for a popular audience, but a learned one. We are given much information, not just about Bolivar's life, but the social, political, and economic aspects of the Revolutionary period in South America (from the 1810s to the 1820s).

Lynch's work will help students of Latin America who must answer such questions as, "how revolutionary was the Revolution? Could Bolivar's model of government have worked?" To some extent, Bolivar's only real accomplishment was throwing off Spanish rule. Slaves in the liberated countries were not freed in the general's lifetime, and the plight of the Indians did not improve very much after the Spanish were defeated. Warlords quickly filled the political vacuum left by the royalist government. Bolivar was a creature of the Enlightenment, but he did not believe that South America could ape the American or French Revolutions. The general sought to apply revolutionary ideas in a South American context: he knew monarchy was disliked, but also that democracy couldn't work. South America's problem was that it was too democratic, too chaotic. When the Spanish left, warlords sought to control local communities at the expense of Bolivar's desire to have a centralized republic. To use an analogy from early U.S. history, Bolivar was more Hamiltonian than Jeffersonian, more a Federalist than a Republican. He knew that the areas his Colombian army did not control were a political free-for-all.

Added to the problem of home rule in South America were racial divisions between the ruling "white" elites (of which Bolivar was one), mixed-race Americans, black slaves, and Indians (Lynch, writing from less politically correct England, never uses the term Native American). Bolivar, who hated racism, struggled with these racial and political divisions. Victory was relatively easy; the peace was what was hard. Bolivar unleashed liberation on a land that was not ready for republicanism. His political dream was a "Gran Colombia" with a strong leader, something along the lines of the British constitutional monarchy (sans the king). But the people didn't want it. As soon as the Spanish were kicked out, the liberated countries wanted to go their own way. Was Bolivar right about the need for a strong, single leader ruling the liberated countries? Or does it even matter, because his centralized republic could never have worked? Such are questions for debate.

In helping answer these historical questions, Lynch's organization of facts and subjects is impeccable. If the book has a flaw, it is that it reads at times more like a history of the Revolutionary period than a biography. As informative as it is, I still didn't quite feel that I had learned enough about Bolivar the man. Overall, Lynch's writing perhaps could use more dashes of romanticism. Still, it is a very good book. As a final note: those who don't know Spanish might want to keep a Spanish dictionary handy. Some words aren't explained or can't be figured out from their context.

This is the first English language biography of Bolivar in approximately 50 years. It is based on a great deal of modern scholarship and authored by a recognized expert on early 19th century Latin America. It is thoughtful and thorough. It is, unfortunately, a somewhat frustrating book. Lynch is a competent, as opposed to good, writer. The narrative tends to skip around a bit and parts are repetitive. Lynch seems also to have had his fellow scholars in mind as the target of this book. The text seems to presuppose a fair prior knowledge of 19th century Latin American history. In several respects, this book seems to be essentially a summary of modern scholarship on Bolivar rather than a full fledged interpretative biography.
Within these limitations, this is a useful book. Lynch does an excellent job of describing Bolivar's complex personality. Lynch emphasizes the continuity in Bolivar's motivations and thinking throughout his career. The product of an elite Venezualan creole family, Bolivar grew up to espouse a complex mixture of idealistic Enlightenment rationalism and romantic nationalism leavened by a healthy dose of pragmatism. His pursuit of personal glory seems also to have a major factor in his incessant pursuit of freedom from Spain. Lynch does well also in describing the highly adverse conditions under which Bolivar pursued his aims. A major theme of the book is the frustration of Bolivar's Enlightenment reformism by the actions of the native elites he set in power and general weakness of civil society in early 19th century South America.
A useful book but one which underscores the need for a major biography.

It is applaudable that Lynch has written the first major English biography of Bolivar in five decades, and it is evident that Lynch knows, and greatly admires, Simon Bolivar. Lynch's extensive research into the life of Latin America's greatest Liberator provides a wealth of information that one is hard pressed to find anywhere else.

However, unlike Gabriel Garcia Marquez's, "The General in His Labyrinth," John Lynch writes a biography that is stilted and reads like a textbook: names, dates, places, events, etc. Never does Lynch help you understand the power of Bolivar's dynamic and engaging personality. Unlike Gabriel Garcia Marquez, whose writing breaths life into the dead hero, Lynch preforms an post-mortem examination, identifying part and problems but never resurrecting the great man.

All students of South America should read John Lynch's biography, but also, follow up this textbook with the masterful "The General in His Labyrinth". Conditionally Recommended.

John Lynch does another excellent job of preparing a biography on a Latin American dictator. Simon Bolivar's life was a contradiction from his rise to power as the liberator of Latin America to his downfall as a dictator. Bolivar would free four countries during his rise to power, have a nation named after him and introduce liberalism to an entire continent. Unfortunately in the process his jealously and paranoia would create a dictatorship that would rival any in Latin America. His cult of personality was very strong and he exercised supreme power. While not always the greatest general he had a George Washington like quality for wining at the key moments and always presenting the best face on his defeats. Bolivars life is broken into three stages by Lynch Revolution, Independence and nation building. Throughout each of these phases we see a different Bolivar. It is not a continuous strand of evolution but a radical change in each. I think Lynch makes a case although he does not specifically state it that after nation building Bolivar ends his life disgraced and out of power with people hunting him for the nations he tried to build.

Most U.S. citizens know a fair amount of their country's history, but next to nothing about the history of South America. When asked about famous South Americans, probably the name that would come to mind the most would be Simon Bolivar. This book chronicles his life and times, and his multi-year struggle to free the South American countries from Spanish rule. Bolivar himself comes across as a fully drawn figure, but just about everyone else is given short shrift by the author. Also, sometimes the book tells us more than we really need to know to appreciate Bolivar's single-minded intensity. The writing gets stiff at times, and is hard to read in a flowing manner. Otherwise, this is an excellent book to fill the knowledge gap that North Americans have concerning our sister countries to the South.

For anything anyone has ever wanted to know about the Liberator, here it is..truly what the English-speaking world has waited for. The Liberator with all his mastery and faults presented in hard-copy, whose feats rivaled that of Alexander the Great and whose faults are greater than our accomplishments. He was unlucky enough to inherit South American Independence and charged the harder task of handing freedom to the population out of a Dostoyevsky novel. Lynch explains why the dreamer who wished to unite a continent failed to do so. Here is the tragic true tale of someone who inspired by Rousseu's noble savage believed that a population could truly be democratic and found that democracy cannot be for every one and that a foreign military power cannot a build a nation. The America Washington inherited, was the misfortune Bolivar inherited. He freed/conquered more land and people than Washington, Jackson, Scott, Lee and Napolean combined. He was the greatest American General the West ever produced and he lies forgotten as 3rd World History, and is suddenly slightly resurrected by John Lynch. Lynch proves one cannot study any revolution until you study Bolivar. He believed in a people that did not believe in itself. Half a century before the United States challenged itself with abolition, and 150 years before Great Britain accepted racist Apartheid as immoral, he politically challenged a continent to accept that slavery and racism was not only uneconomic, but an incompatible hypocrisy in a democratic society. Almost 200 years before the American Civil Rights Movement granted non-whites economic and political equality, he dragged non-whites out of poverty and into viable recognition in their societies, granting them opportunities that the United States would only do with much more bloodshed 2 centuries later. In short, Superbly Written.

Above all, Bolivar thought of himself as a soldier, which makes it very strange that Professor Lynch provides virtually no discussion of this aspect of Bolivar's life. There are some aspects of grand strategy, such as the discussion of Bolivar's decision to liberate Venezuela by moving to Columbia (New Granada) and invading from the southwest. But there is nothing about how Bolivar conducted himself in a battle, nothing about his tactics, his command of logistics. You will not find out anything about the character of his army -- what weapons? what balance of cavalry and infantry? And how about a little detail about the Bolivar's famous crossing of the Andes, memorialized in Napoleon-style paintings?

At one point, Professor Lynch disposes of a complete campaign by simply listing the names of seven battles -- nothing more!

I will echo some other reviewers by saying that Lynch does a good job of evaluating Bolivar's philosophy and exploring the political, social and economic milieu in which he operated. But the neglect of a central element of Bolivar's life means that his biography is incomplete.

I would consider this a good supplementary study after reading a comprehensive biography of the Liberator.

A note about maps: The maps are inadequate; two simple line drawings of nothern South America and the continent as whole, with national boundaries, cities and major rivers -- nothing more. They illustrate nothing about the topography in which Bolivar operated. The geography of northern South America played a critical role not only in his military campaigns but also in the politics and economics of the region -- the presence of the Andes in itself doomed his project to unite New Granda (present Columbia), Venezuela and Ecuador in a grand republic of Columbia. The publisher should have invested enough to show the location of the Andes at least!

Most of the reviews of this book will try to explain the history of Simon Bolivar. I wish to give you my opinion of the book. I had extreme difficulty putting it down. Lynch uses first hand accounts describing Bolivar, and you really get to know him on a personal level. Many of the other charictures come to life as well. The story is accurate and well written. Though I am just a dumb constuction worker with only a high school education, I have learned much from this book, and would even say that I have a better understanding of politics now. I was really pulled into Bolivar's life, and shed a few tears during the course of reading this book. And I'm a tough guy. My imagination has been sparked and I feel inspired. Thank you Mr. Lynch for breaking through the myth and giving us the real Bolivar. I now proclaim myself a fan of Simon Bolivar, and wish to visit his homeland in the near future. Viva el Libertador!

Most of the time, when Hugo Chavez gives his long, boring, brainwashing and finger pointing speeches on National TV, behind of him there is a painting of Simon Bolivar. One thing is sure, it is not Bolivar's fault to be misused and distorted that way and you can realize that by reading these pages, perhaps a dense book, well researched biography of the Liberator. I was not familiar with the story of the Liberation of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the invention of Bolivia, but despite the high quantity of information, I consider this book a good reading, especially the last paragraph of the book. It was not an easy task, considering that before fighting the Spaniards, the New Granadians fought each other in a civil war -- this is like a joke, but it was mainly because of the composition of the population, several races like whites, pardos, indians, mulattos and blacks, each one with resentments againts each other. Bolivar was undoubdetly a great figure in Latin America History, he was loved but also hated, he was able to Liberate Countries from the Spaniards but he couldn't find the right political structure for this difficult Latin America, and you can see that even today, especially in Venezuela and Bolivia.

This book presents a well-rounded picture of the life of Bolivar ranging from his political thought, to his military campaigns, to his personal life. One of the things I like about this book is that Prof. Lynch approaches his subject quite objectively and the result is that he humanizes Bolivar because he shows us the exceptional personal qualities of the liberator as well as some of his imperfections. I think that Prof. Lynch can approach Bolivar's life from a more "independent" perspective than most Latin American historians could because if you're from Latin America, myself included, you can develop a kind of "idealistic distortion" of the historical past and you overlook how hard and challenging the struggle for independence really was. This phenomenon is not limited to Latin America: witness also the adoration towards the "founding fathers" in the United States.

The book is very well researched. Furthermore, I have the impression that Prof. Lynch traveled extensively tracing a lot of the steps taken by Bolivar during his campaigns because the author has a good sense of the distances and geographical difficulties that one encounters when traveling in certain regions of South America.

Although I am bilingual in Spanish and English, I read this book in the Spanish translation and it was superb. You basically couldn't tell it was a translation.