The History of Latin America: Collision of Cultures - Paperback

by Marshall C. Eakin (Author)

This narrative history of Latin America surveys five centuries in less than five hundred pages. The first third of the book moves from the Americas before Columbus to the wars for independence in the early nineteenth century. The construction of new nations and peoples in the nineteenth century forms the middle third, and the final section analyzes economic development, rising political participation, and the search of identity over the last century. The collision of peoples and cultures--Native Americans, Europeans, Africans--that defines Latin America, and gives it both its unity and diversity, provides the central theme of this concise, synthetic history.

Author Biography

Marshall C. Eakin is Professor of History at Vanderbilt University and Executive Director of the Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA). A specialist in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Brazilian history, he is the author of British Enterprise in Brazil (1989); Brazil: The Once and Future Country (1997); and Tropical Capitalism: The Industrialization of Belo Horizonte, Brazil (2001). Eakin has also created two video courses with the Teaching Company: "Conquest of the Americas" and "The Americas in the Revolutionary Era." He is a noted authority on the region, and has written many journal and magazine articles on Latin American history, culture, and politics as well as contributing to travel guides. He lives in Nashville, TN.