“The Bolivian National Revolution of 1952 stands alongside the Mexican and Cuban revolutions as one of the most significant events in Latin American history.” This book opens with that forceful assertion, and brings together a variety of authoritative papers that assess that revolution, appropriately, as a process rather than an event.
Carter Goodrich provides an eye-witness chronicle of happenings in the capital immediately preceding and during the 3-day revolt, and discusses the role of the U.N. Technical Assistance Mission, which he headed. Herbert S. Klein gives a brief outline of economic and political history, emphasizing the problems that grew out of the Chaco War and Bolivia’s peculiar economy. Cole Blasier focuses on the role of the U.S. in providing substantial and continuing economic assistance, despite mutual antipathy and occasional open conflict over fundamental economic policies.
James M. Malloy summarily characterizes the political parties of this century, and key individuals whose shifting affiliations both created and reflected ideological controversies, even within the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR) which “made” the revolution and stayed in power for an unprecedented 12 years thereafter. By contrast, Richard S. Thom stresses continuity in terms of the development strategy recommended by U.S. advisors in 1942, to the point of denying the “revolutionary” character of the MNR. In an essay tightly bolstered by statistical data, he argues that Bolivia’s “economic takeoff” was achieved as a result of relative political stability during MNR’s long incumbency, rather than through revolutionary innovation. James W. Wilkie musters ample statistical evidence on public expenditures since 1945, showing a progressive cut-back on administrative costs and increased investments in social welfare. Although intended to free Bolivians from economic imperialism, this led to increased dependence on foreign decisions, as the trend could neither be reversed feasibly (in political terms) nor sustained by the national economy (except with massive aid).
William E. Carter provides a tantalizing brief view of what life was like in a small town on the altiplano during the revolution, clearly demonstrating that it was not a “grass-roots” revolt but that the peasants, at least in that area, were organized subsequently. He also outlines the agrarian reform law and summarizes the impact it has had in diverse regions of the country. Madeline B. and William Leóns summarize economic and social changes that have taken place among peasants and townsmen in one region, the yungas. Melvin Burke compares haciendas on both sides of the Peru-Bolivia border, around Lake Titicaca, showing marked differences in terms of demography, production, income, consumption, and education. Murdo J. MacLeod reviews Bolivian novels written since the Chaco War of the 1930s, illuminating various kinds of social protest.
These authors, and others, have provided more detailed studies of these topics elsewhere, so that, for the Andeanist, there is little here that is new other than Wilkie’s paper and the varied statistical tables throughout. Nevertheless, this book should be useful for other Latin Americanists and students of revolution who will find it the first volume that includes descriptions and analyses, by specialists, of Bolivia’s crucial experience, in terms of key topics such as historical context, political organization, economic development, policy and administration, international relations, agrarian reform, changes in rural life, and literature.
