Colombia may be the least studied of the larger Latin American countries. The reasons are undoubtedly various, but surely include a twentieth-century history characterized by a relatively high measure of continuity in its elites and institutions. Yet Colombia should be of great interest to historians and to Latin Americanists in a number of ways: the aforementioned continuity (hardly typical of the region), and not least the survival of its vaunted (albeit much factionalized) two-party system; the endemic violence in its politics; the historic weakness of the military and the strength of the church (despite nineteenth-century action against it as severe as almost anywhere); the comparative weakness of both populism and nationalism; the continued close ties to the United States despite the loss of Panama early in this century; and an economy that has remained consistently (though not spectacularly) stronger, and more resistant to state intervention, than most others in the hemisphere.
These are among the topics touched on in this new book by Harvey F. Kline, associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Kline has lived, traveled, and taught in Colombia for a number of years and has written extensively on the country’s politics. The book itself is one of a series of short overviews of Latin American countries published by the Westview Press. As such, it contains chapters on the land and people, history (two chapters), politics, economy, and foreign relations. The history tends to stress the political, and is geared essentially to extracting those themes most relevant to an understanding of contemporary Colombia. The brief history of the National Front, and the chapter on government and politics, are particularly good. Perhaps inevitably, certain topics get unduly short shrift, notably, the role of intellectuals, students, and education generally, as well as the problems and possibilities of the burgeoning squatter settlements in and around the country’s large cities.
Kline’s book does not constitute a history of modern Colombia, or an in-depth study of its politics; nor does it pretend to do so. What it does very successfully is to afford the student or the scholar a very good overview of modern Colombia and its historical roots. It should take its place as the best quick study of Colombia available.
