Carlos de la Torre, a sociologist at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) in Quito, and Steve Striffler, an anthropologist at the University of New Orleans, have assembled an impressively broad compilation of writings on Ecuador as part of Duke University Press’s Latin American Readers series. Typically editors assemble anthologies from previously published material. In this case, it appears that half of the items were written specifically for this volume, although many of these largely draw on the authors’ previous writings rather than new research. Unfortunately, relatively few of the selections are what historians typically would consider primary sources. While specialists will inevitably quibble with omissions and specific emphases in the volume, altogether it does successfully present an overview of Ecuador’s history, culture, and politics for the general reader or a student who is new to the field.
The volume is broken into six sections, roughly organized along chronological...
