Every reader of the HAHR—most veterans of the lean pre-Castro years for Latin American experts—know of the explosion of books about Latin America. Americans we have never heard of are suddenly Latin American specialists. Here at the Book Review office of the HAHR we are swamped with these books and treatises and we cannot find enough willing reviewers whom we consider bona fide pre-Castro-days experts.
Here is another book that is not bad and perhaps even useful, but which adds nothing new to expert knowledge. The book is a collection of eighteen papers read at the Conference on Tensions in Development in the Western Hemisphere held at the University of Bahia in August, 1962, and sponsored by the Council on World Tensions and implemented by a grant of the Ford Foundation. As one might expect, José Figueres read a paper and said nothing new. Galo Plaza was a speaker, too, and therefore Germán Arciniegas also appeared, as did Lincoln Gordon, Chester Bowles, and David Rockefeller. Senator Eduardo Frei from Chile gave one of the best and most original papers when he discussed “Notes on the Catholic Church and Development.” The section “Latin America and the European Common Market” is reasonably useful. It is written by Arciniegas and three European delegates of international experience and participants of the various movements of European unity. The summary of the conference was written by Reynold E. Carlson of the Ford Foundation and ex-Director of the Institute of Brazilian Studies at Vanderbilt. This is a good chapter—clearly written and organized. To the Latin Americanist the cited reasons for Latin American tension are quite obvious, as are also the remedies. But for the average reader it is valuable.
What about evolution or explosion? Of the many personal points of view one was dominant. There will not be peaceful evolution if there is not a “changing attitude in the elite and power classes” of Latin America (Carlson). The book should be useful for classroom discussion.