Proclaiming Revolution: Bolivia in Comparative Perspective by Merilee S. Grindle (Editor), Pilar Domingo (Editor), Herbert S. Klein (Contribution by), Laurence Whitehead (Contribution by), Alan Knight (Contribution by)

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Synopsis

In 1952 Bolivia was transformed by revolution. With the army destroyed from only a few days of fighting, workers and peasants took up arms to claim the country as their own. Overnight, the electorate expanded five-fold. Industries were turned over to worker organizations to manage, and land was distributed to peasant communities. Education became universal and free for the first time in the country's history.

This volume, the result of a conference organized by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies of Harvard University and the Institute for Latin American Studies at the University of London, presents new interpretations of the causes of the events of 1952 and compares them to the great social transformations that occurred in France, Mexico, Russia, China, and Cuba. It also considers the consequences of the revolution by examining the political, social, and economic development of the country, as well as adding important insights to the analysis of revolution and the understanding of this fascinating Andean country.

Foreign Affairs

When Harvard University and the University of London convened a conference to reexamine the 1952 Bolivian revolution on its 50th anniversary, few people noticed. A year later, however, Bolivia is very much back in the news. Triggered by nationalist fury over a proposed natural gas pipeline and the war on coca production, shantytown-dwellers and peasants converged on La Paz and forced the resignation of the pro-American, market-friendly president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada — raising once again the specter of chronic instability and rural revolt that has plagued Bolivia's turbulent history. This book, the product of that conference, therefore arrives at a fortuitous moment. Among the topics examined is the role of the United States, which came to terms with the Bolivian revolution much as it had with Mexico's even while fighting similar movements in Cuba, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. With the indigenous majority, as elsewhere in the Andes, increasingly restive and urbanized, the explanation for the current instability may also lie buried in these dense studies, including one of Bolivia's peculiar combination of major improvement in literacy and education and persistent poverty and economic backwardness. But overall, the book's authors seem blissfully unprepared for the earthquake that shook the system just as their book was released: they conclude that Bolivia established a modicum of political order after its return to democratic rule in 1982.

Biography

Merilee S. Grindle is Edward S. Mason Professor of International Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

Pilar Domingo is Lecturer in Politics, Queen Mary College, University of London.