Product Details

Publishers Weekly

Balanced and wide-ranging, this companion volume to a PBS TV series uses a thematic rather than an encyclopedic approach to examine the 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Winn, the academic director of the series and professor of history at Tufts University, ably integrates the PBS team's reportage with current scholarship in seven disciplines, ranging from anthropology to economics to sociology. After canvassing the legacies of the European conquerors, Winn examines issues of national identity and economic development by focusing on Argentina. He looks also at the uneven results of development under the Brazilian military. Other discussions survey internal migration, the role of indigenous peoples, the complexity of race relations and the treatment of women. Concluding chapters address U.S. influence in the region, the history and future of revolution there and, briefly, Latin American influence in the U.S. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Written to accompany a television series and college telecourse to be broadcast on PBS this January, Americas is a fairly frantic jump from high spot to high spot through the history to date of Latin America and the Caribbean. Winn, a professor of history at Tufts and the academic director of the series, offers analyses of, among other subjects, the role of women, the influence of the Catholic church, the growing power of the evangelical and spiritualist sects, the three important Latin American revolutions (Mexico in the 1910s, Cuba in 1959, and Nicaragua in 1970), Argentina during the Peron era, and the changing role of indigenous people. The final effect of these essays is a remarkably readable overview of the similarities and differences among the 33 Latin American countries, including the United States and its Hispanic population. Recommended for all public and secondary school libraries and junior colleges.-- Nancy Padgett Lazar, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents