Teresa A. Meade is Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and Culture at Union College, New York. She is the author of “Civilizing” Rio: Reform and Resistance in a Brazilian City (1997), A Brief History of Brazil, 2nd edition (2009), and co-editor of the Blackwell Companion to Gender History (2004) and Science, Medicine and Cultural Imperialism (1991). She has written widely on Latin America, and on women and gender history.

• List of Figures xiList of Maps xiiiPreface xivAcknowledgments xviiCover image xix1 Introduction to the Land and Its People 1Geography 2People 2Economies 6Politics 8Culture and Entertainment 12Latin America: Past and Present 202 Latin America in 1790 23Colonial Background 24Power and Privilege 28Land 29Colonial Administration 32Enlightened Monarchy 33The Agents of the Reform 35Disorder and Rebellion 37Discontent and Disorder in Brazil 39Changing Gender Roles 40On the Road to Independence 42Nationalism and American Culture 42Conclusion 463 Competing Notions of Freedom 49Five Roads to Independence 50African Slavery in the Americas 51Slavery and the Countryside 55Slavery in the Cities 55Treatment and Punishment 57Slavery and the Church 58African Medicine and Religious Practices 59Resistance and Rebellion 60The Sugar Colony of Saint-Domingue 62The Slave Revolt 64The Revolution Betrayed 66Brazil’s Independent Empire 67Independence in Mexico 68South American Independence 70Post-independence Changes in Racial and Gender Status 74The Last Holdout of Slavery in Spanish America 75Latin America in a Changing World Order 77Conclusion 784 Fragmented Nationalisms 81Searching for Political and Economic Unity 81New World “Feudalism” 82Post-independence Politics 86Argentina and the Tyrants 87Populist Caudillismo: Paraguay and Bolivia 89After Caudillismo 91Race, Race Mixture, and Liberalism 93Gender and Liberalism 96Intersections of Gender, Race, and Class 98Nationalism 101Conclusion 1015 Latin America’s Place in the Commodity Chain 105The Guano Boom 106Nitrates in Chile 108Sugar and Coffee 109The Growth of São Paulo 111Colombian Coffee 113The Rubber Boom 114Expanding Exports 115Mexico and US Expansionism 117The North American Invasion 118General López de Santa Anna 120The New Age of Imperialism 121Central America and the Panama Canal 122Ecuador and the “Panama” Hat 125Independence at Last? Cuba and Puerto Rico 128Conclusion 1336 Immigration, and Urban and Rural Life 135Asian Immigration 136European Immigration 137The Southern Cone 138Life on the Pampas 141British Investment 142The Changing Cultural Landscape 144Urban Renewal 147Mexico and Benito Juárez 149French Invasions 150The Rise of Porfirio Díaz 151Intellectual Theories: Positivism and Eugenics 152Conclusion 1547 Revolution from Countryside to City: Mexico 157The Porfiriato 158Opposition to the Porfiriato 160Constitutional Opposition 161Madero Assassinated 163US Intervention 163Women in Combat 164Carranza as President 165The Constitution of 1917 169Aftermath of Struggle 170Agrarian Revolts in Latin America 171Conclusion 1748 The Left and the Socialist Alternative 175Socialism on the World Stage 175Social Reform and the Middle Class 176Anarchism, Socialism, and Anarcho-syndicalism 177Women in the Workforce 178Colombia: Resistance to the United Fruit Company 179The Labor Movement 181Socialism and the Arts 182Tenentes Revolt and Brazilian Communism 183Modern Art Week in Brazil 185Women in the Arts 187Socialism vs. Capitalism 189José Carlos Mariátegui 190Conclusion 1919 Populism and the Struggle for Change 193Getúlio Vargas and “New State” Politics 195Juan Perón and Peronism 197Perón’s Fall from Grace 200Politics Engendered 201Revolutionizing Mexico: Lázaro Cárdenas 203Populism in Colombia and Peru 204Central America 206The Long Twentieth Century 210Conclusion 21110 Post-World War II Struggles for Sovereignty 213World War II 213Temporary Worker Program 215Post-war Latin America 217Military vs. Civilian Rule 219The Absolute Dictator: Rafael Trujillo 221Americas in Transition: Guatemala and Bolivia 225Guatemala 225Revolution in Bolivia 227Mining and the Voice of Bolivian Activism 229The Revolution in Decline 231Conclusion 23211 Cuba: Guerrillas Take Power 235“History Will Absolve Me” 236Causes for Discontent 237The Revolutionary War 238The Special Period in Peacetime 241Cuba and the World 242Ernesto “Che” Guevara 243What Difference Did the Revolution Make? 246Democratic Shortcomings 248Conclusion 24912 Progress and Reaction 251Modernization and Progress 251Brazil’s Military Coup 252The National Security State 254Latin America’s Youth Movement 255Mexico 255The Massacre at Tlateloco 256The Chilean Road to Socialism 257The Chilean Road to Socialism Dead Ends 259Urban Guerrilla Warfare: Uruguay 260Urban Guerrilla Warfare: Argentina 262Dictatorship and State Terror 264Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo 266The War of the Malvinas/Falkland Islands 267Movements for Revolutionary Change: Peru 269Sendero Luminoso, the Shining Path 270Women and Shining Path 272Repression and Fujimori 273Conclusion 27413 Revolution and Its Alternatives 277A Changing Catholic Church 278Marxism and Catholic Humanism 279The Opposition 281The Somozas versus Sandino: the Next Generation 281The Sandinista Opposition 282Sandinistas in Power 285United States and the Sandinistas 288Effects of the Contra War 289Central America in Turmoil: El Salvador and Guatemala 291Politics of Repression in El Salvador 292The Opposition 293The Fighting Ends 294Guatemala: The Bloodiest War 295The Evangelical Alternative 297Colombia: The Longest War 299The War on Drugs in Latin America 300Conclusion 30314 The Americas in the Twenty-first Century 305The Washington Consensus 305Brazil and the Workers’ Alternative 306The Workers’ Party in Power 308Bolivia: Twenty-first-century Indigenismo 309Venezuela and Hugo Chávez 310The Bolivarian Mission 312Chávez and “the Pink Tide” 313Complicating Social Ties 314Chile’s Transition to Democracy 315New Social Movements 317Movements for Racial and Gender Equality 319Women and Politics 320The Latin Americanization of the United States 322Immigration and Free Trade 325Opponents Confront Free Trade 327Immigration and Neoliberalism 330Sharing the Environment and the Cost of Stewardship 331Notes 335Glossary 341Further Reading 345Index 359

"Nothing is more important than to communicate up-to-date scholarship to students in a lucid and reasonable manner. It seems to me that [this] textbook is remarkably successful in both these respects." ( The New York Times , 1 October 2012)