Political Culture, Social Movements, and Democratic Transitions in South America in the Twentieth Century

Fernando Devoto and Torcuato Di Tella have put together a volume that is impressive for its scope and detail. Bringing together a group of 16 renowned scholars from North and South America, Political Culture, Social Movements, and Democratic Transitions in South America in the Twentieth Century amply succeeds in fulfilling the publisher’s goal of creating “a set of sources which can be used by scholars for their own present or future research” (p. ix). The volume is divided into two sections: the first is entitled “Historical Perspectives”; and the second part consists of a somewhat shorter series of chapters on “Contemporary Problems.” Useful overviews in each section set the context for several detailed case studies of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile that are found in both parts of the book, as well as single case studies of Uruguay and Venezuela in the first half of this century and more recent studies...