Steve J. Stern, professor of Latin American history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has prepared with utmost care a rich and satisfying intellectual banquet in Shining and Other Paths. When he convoked the 1995 conference in Madison that gave rise to this volume, his goals were to “improve understanding and interpretation of Peru’s recent history” and to “develop … fresh knowledge and analysis.” These goals were to be accomplished in a “carefully designed and multigenerational collaboration” based in large measure on the fieldwork of intellectuals who “had ‘come of age’ intellectually during Peru’s war years” (p. xi). As one of the participants at this conference of the older intellectual generation, I can attest firsthand to the excitement we felt over the presentations and exchanges and the prospect that these would become a significant book. The eagerly awaited results do not disappoint.
Shining and Other Paths is a masterfully...
