Week One: “Backward Looks and Forward Glances”: Revision
Questions:

What themes are specific to “Latin American” history? Do they really apply to all
the countries and areas in the region? Is there such a thing as “Latin America”?

What have been the broad historical problems the continent has faced? How have
they affected the lives of individual people living in the region?
Required reading:
Tulio Halperín Donghi, “Backward Looks and Forward Glimpses from a Quincentennial
Vantage Point,” Journal of Latin American Studies, special supplement for 1992
commemorations, 1992, pp. 219-34.
In addition, please read ONE of the following:
On politics and “order”: Frank Safford, “The Problem of Political Order in Early
Republican Spanish America.” Journal of Latin American Studies, 24, Quincentenary
Supplement, 1992, 83-97
On caudillos, Liberals and Conservatives: Benjamin Keen, ed., Latin American
Civilization: History and Society, 1492 to the Present, Westview Press (Boulder, 1996), 6th
edition, ch. 15, “Dictators and Revolutions,” pp. 262-286
On Mexico and the Revolution: Keen, Benjamin, ed., Latin American Civilization: History
and Society, 1492 to the Present, Westview Press (Boulder, 1996), 6th edition, chapter 17
“The Mexican Revolution,” from p. 315 to p. 337
On Argentina: “Argentina: The Struggle for Democracy, 1890-1990,” in Keen,
Benjamin, Latin American Civilization: History and Society, 1492 to the Present, Westview Press
(Boulder, 1996), 6th edition,, ch 18, pp. 348-365
On Cuba: “Ángel Santana Suárez, Cuban Sugar Worker,” in The Human Tradition in Latin
America, ed. Kenneth Andrien (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 2002), pp. 75-88 (on
short loan)
On land (peasants, indigenous, and land reform): Miguel Teubal and Mariana Ortega
Breña, “Agrarian reform and social movements in an age of globalisation: Latin America
at the dawn of the twenty-first century,” Latin American Perspectives, 36:4 (July 2009): 9-20.
On the military and dictatorship: “Irma Muller” [on the Pinochet dictatorship], in The
Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America, ed. Kenneth Andrien (Wilmington: Scholarly
Resources, 2002), pp. 207-218