The title of this book intrigued me. The jacket blurb further attracted me. My eyes lit up as I read the first sentence of the Preface: “Our work is an introduction to Latin American society which aims at defining the existential conditions under which most Latin Americans live” (p. v). So, I began to read the book with the notion that at last someone had prepared for our classes a study of the people—not just the elites, not just the institutions—which would give Latin American history a dimension it certainly lacks. I concluded the reading disappointed that the book did not fulfill those expectations.
As I moved from the clear statements of the Preface into the text itself, I became confused about the direction and goals of the book, and soon I had the impression that the two author-editors were too. The best part of the book does, indeed, concern the “human condition” of Latin America. In it, the author-editors offer worthwhile material on the Indians, communities, religion, and the human side of the enclave economics. Chapter three with its discussions of social structures and behavior in small communities provides an unusually interesting and valuable perspective. Unfortunately almost half the text is a more pedestrian discussion of geography, economics, and politics which one can find better handled elsewhere. Further, it should be noted, the book comes very close to being (perhaps is) a “non-book.” Quotations and readings from a variety of sources—and most are excellent—make up about half the text, giving the narrative the task of stringing them together. In some chapters, one has the impression that the readings, not the author-editors of this text, are in control.
Some of the broader historical interpretations disturbed me as outdated and/or naive. For example: “For a century and a half now Latin America has been in continuous political turmoil” (p. 205), or: “The more limited the supply of wealth in a country, therefore, the more rapid the turnover of caudillos” (p. 225). Errors in factual detail were equally disturbing: Brazil has a population of 95 million, not 50 (p. 3); the “gold fever” in Brazil ended about 1760, not “1830” (p. 12); Bolivia’s desire “to obtain an outlet to the sea” was not the cause of the Chaco War (p. 19); the Amazon rubber boom collapsed in 1910, not 1900 (p. 134). And the spelling of Portuguese words and Brazilian names is depressing: four errors on page 145 alone.
The idea behind this book I applaud. Regretfully the book does not properly carry out that idea. In the field of Latin American studies, we need social histories, a synthesis of the growing number of community studies, a view of Latin America from below rather than from the presidential balconies. Perhaps this book is the first faltering step in that desired direction of scholarship and writing.
