Readings on Latin America from the Foreign Policy Association

READINGS:

Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America's Soul
Drawing on Michael Reid's many years of reporting from inside Latin America's cities, presidential palaces, and shantytowns, this book provides a vivid, immediate, and informed account of a dynamic continent and its struggle to compete in a globalized world. Reid argues that rather than failing the test, Latin America's efforts to build fairer and more prosperous societies make it one of the world's most vigorous laboratories for capitalist democracy.

Hugo!: The Hugo Chavez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution
In Hugo! Bart Jones tells the story of Hugo Chávez's impoverished childhood, his military career and the decade of clandestine political activity that ended in a failed attempt to seize power in 1992. He describes the election campaign against a former Miss Universe that finally won Chávez the Presidency and the dramatic reversals of fortune that have marked it: the struggle to reform the Venezuelan economy, the coup attempt of 2002 in which he was kidnapped and faced summary execution, and the oil industry strike that followed. Hugo! is scrupulously researched and sourced and tells the full stories of many of these episodes for the first time - in English or Spanish.

Hugo Chavez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela's Controversial President
He is one of the most controversial and important world leaders currently in power. In this international bestseller, at last available in English, Hugo Chávez is captured in a critically acclaimed biography, a riveting account of the Venezuelan president who continues to influence, fascinate, and antagonize America.

Ex Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants
In Ex Mex, former Mexican foreign minister and well-known scholar Jorge G. Castañeda draws on his experience in both capacities to dispel some of the most widely held and mistaken ideas about the United States' largest immigrant population. Through Castañeda, we learn who the newest generation of immigrants from Mexico is, why they've chosen to live in the United States, where they work, and what they ultimately hope to achieve. Castañeda also offers an insider's account of the intricate and secret negotiations that took place between Mexico and the United States in 2001-2—contradicting some of the official versions published here—and the unilateral actions that were taken by his government to improve the conditions of Mexican migrants when talks between the two countries became stalemated.

The Accidental President of Brazil: A Memoir
What is it like to govern one of the world's most notoriously ungovernable, most vibrant countries? Brazil's former president offers a candid, wry, illuminating view.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso received a phone call in the middle of the night asking him to be the new Finance Minister of Brazil. As he put the phone down and stared into the darkness of his hotel room, he feared he'd been handed a political death sentence. The year was 1993, and he would be responsible for an economy that had had seven different currencies in the previous eight years to cope with inflation that had run at 3000 percent a year. Brazil had a habit of chewing up finance ministers with the ferocity of an Amazon piranha.



Online Resources »

Latin America: From Colonization to Globalization
I felt that the discussion provided us in GD book (topic 6) was rather biased especially towards neoliberal economic policies favored by U.S. corporations in particular. Sometimes the phrase "shift to the left" is code to prejudice people who fear Communism or Socialism. Some of Latin America's shift to the left and "populist" politics [which your current article presents negatively] actuall benefit human beings by protecting them and the environment by needed regulations of corporations. I would like to see alternative views presented and I can't think of a better alternative than excerpts from the above book or an article by Noam Chomsky.

Great Decisions 2008: Spring Updates [PDF]
Great Decisions 2008 Spring Updates available online or download as PDF

Great Decisions 2008 Spring Update: Latin America
Read the Spring Update to the Great Decisions 2008 topic "Latin America."view all »


Quizzes
Great Decisions 2008 Spring Quiz Series - Latin America Quiz
Online topic quizzes from the Great Decisions 2008 Spring Quiz Series are an ideal test of readers' knowledge of the Great Decisions 2008 briefing book articles and Great Decisions 2008 Spring Updates.
Great Decisions 2008 Winter Quiz Series - Latin America Quiz
Online topic quizzes are an ideal test of readers' knowledge of the Great Decisions 2008 articles.