Voices from the Global Margin: Confronting Poverty and Inventing New Lives in the Andes [Paperback]

William P. Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0292713002 | ISBN-13: 978-0292713000 | Publication Date: May 1, 2006

Voices from the Global Margin looks behind the generalities of debates about globalization to explore the personal impact of global forces on the Peruvian poor. In this highly readable ethnography, William Mitchell draws on the narratives of people he has known for forty years, offering deep insight into how they have coped with extreme poverty and rapid population growth--and their creation of new lives and customs in the process. In their own passionate words they describe their struggles to make ends meet, many abandoning rural homes for marginal wages in Lima and the United States. They chronicle their terror during the Shining Path guerrilla war and the government's violent military response. Mitchell's long experience as an anthropologist living with the people he writes about allows him to put the stories in context, helping readers understand the impact of the larger world on individuals and their communities. His book reckons up the human costs of the global economy, urging us to work toward a more just world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Voices from the Global Margin is a sensitive, well-written piece of work that offers a vivid view of the power, beauty, and hardship of life in the Andes today. . . . The stories in it are rich, sometimes poignant ones that involve the bloody war between Shining Path guerrillas and government troops, migrant odysseys to Lima and even the United States, and the challenges of making a living in conditions of extreme poverty. Perhaps the greatest strength of this book is that it gives a human face to the realities of poverty and violence across the Third World. (Orin Starn, Duke University, author of Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last "Wild" Indian )

About the Author

William P. Mitchell is Professor of Anthropology and Freed Professor in the Social Sciences at Monmouth University in New Jersey.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292713002
• ISBN-13: 978-0292713000
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,060,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A detailed survey, September 23, 2006

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voices from the Global Margin: Confronting Poverty and Inventing New Lives in the Andes (Paperback)

VOICES FROM THE GLOBAL MARGIN: CONFRONTING POVERTY & INVENTING NEW LIVES IN THE ANDES focuses on the Peruvian poor and uses narratives from people he's known for forty years to explore how they've coped with poverty and rapid population growth. Chapters are based on these case history narratives and come from an anthropologist who lives among those he writes about, making for far more of a detailed survey than any archive-based study could achieve.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

5.0 out of 5 stars An engaging story of struggle and change in Latin America., August 13, 2006

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word fan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voices from the Global Margin: Confronting Poverty and Inventing New Lives in the Andes (Paperback)

This book is a wonderful account of the changes being wrought in the Andes by globalisation and evolving economic realities. It also tells the story of one anthropologist's growth as he works among the people of the highland Andes. I reccomend it highly.