Often social and cultural histories lack an international or transnational context. This fine collection of essays from an October 2003 conference does not suffer from such a problem. In an important investigation of Chile after September 11, 1973, the authors and editors have effectively linked particular events and trends in the recent Chilean past with patterns of globalization in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
In the preface, Marjorie Agosín presents the two most important themes of the collection: the transformation of Chilean authoritarianism to democracy, and what this has meant for the collective memory and identity of Chileans. The editors then flesh out these themes in a useful introduction. The organization of the book lends itself to a thorough investigation of the two major transformations in recent Chilean history: the authoritarianism that followed September 11, 1973, and the restoration of democracy in 1989.
Part 1 explores Chile’s recent...
