The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems

Book Description

This collection of Neruda's most essential poems will prove indispensable. Selected by a team of poets and prominent Neruda scholars in both Chile and the U.S., this is a definitive selection that draws from the entire breadth and width of Neruda's various styles and themes. An impressive group of translators that includes Alistair Reid, Stephen Mitchell, Robert Hass, Stephen Kessler and Jack Hirschman, have come together to revisit or completely retranslate the poems; and a handful of previously untranslated works are included as well. This selection sets the standard for a general, high--quality introduction to Neruda's complete oeuvre.

Pablo Neruda was born in Chile in 1904. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

Customer Reviews:

Gracias a la Vida de Pablo!.......2007-08-04

M.Eisner has compiled an elegant presentation of the profound Pablo's soulful echo. The translations are smooth and majestic. He has clearly discovered the light radiating from Neruda's heart. Thank you for this lovely red poppy edition!

Lovely Collection of Poetry.......2007-06-01

This beautiful collection of poetry contains both English & Spanish versions of Neruda's poetry. It contains great breadth & depth at the core and encompasses the vastness of Neruda's work - love, politics, everyday life, landscape. This is a GREAT gift book!

Wonderful tool (and treat!) for those learning Spanish.......2006-10-10

My husband is a linguist, and one of the things he suggested I do while learning Spanish is memorize various items -- stories, poems, songs -- that I can say to myself whenever I like. Other than "practice the verbs!" this has been the best language advice I've ever received. It helps me with pronunciation, understanding, fluency -- and, as a major side benefit, I have great pastimes for when I'm waiting in line, or stuck somewhere without a book.
"The Essential Neruda" is a goldmine of beautiful pieces, and most anyone will be able to find a poem that appeals to them enough to learn by heart. "Oda al Libro (II)" is one of my favorites, and it has helped me learn and retain the meanings of several great words.
Side-by-side bilingual texts like this one also serve as terrific motivators for language learners because as we grow in skill and are able to read in both languages, we can evaluate the translators' work and notice where certain nuances and meanings are lost in the shift from one language to another. Being able to understand a writer like Neruda in his original language is a glorious treat!

an exquisite allure.......2006-05-22

Drawn into the appeal of Pablo Neruda through an art project, I
approached this collection of poems taped together and bound by
a red sleeve at a local bookstore. I was moreoverly surprised
at how entrancing and delicately eloquent Neruda's writing style
was--even transcribed from spanish to english. The editor, Mark
Eisner did a fantastic job with the translations, and I didn't
feel like I was succombing to "Kung-Fu movie" subtitles as I
would have expected. This collection brought Neruda's poetry to
a managable and palpable understanding, such as I needed to
thoroughly perceive it. Though Chile, Neruda's homeland, is, as
any other cultured region would be, variable to my own, it
continued to bring insights to my own observations of life--and
all the beauty and exquisite allure contained in it.

it is all in the title.......2006-01-16

As a former student of Spanish literature, I have always held a deep appreciation for the work of Pablo Neruda. I have often wished to share the beauty of his work with friends and family - yet many of them have found Neruda translations to be inaccessible. I have also found that many of the other translations are stilted or do not properly recreate the rhythm and imagery of the Spanish original.
The Essential Neruda combines an excellent overview of Neruda's work with accesible and faithful translation. Whether you are new to the poetry of Pablo Neruda or have already read every one of his works - the Essential Neruda will give you valuable insight into his art and an appreciation of cutting-edge poetry translation.
This book also launched a non-profit organization and on-line community dedicated to Neruda and his work.

Check out www.redpoppy.net to learn about contemporary Neruda translation and scholarship, Chilean politics and more.

It also shows how you can get involved with the legacy of Neruda.

Average customer rating:

dense piece of trash
"If I'd had more time, I'd have written a shorter book."
Very Imformative
A Brilliant Survey of Maya Civilization
a great text

The Ancient Maya, 6th Edition
Robert Sharer , and Loa Traxler
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Mayan | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0804748179
Release Date: 2005-10-10

Book Description

This book traces the evolution of Maya civilization through the Pre-Columbian era, a span of some 2,500 years from the origins of complex society within Mesoamerica to the end of the Pre-Columbian world with the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century. The sixth edition presents new archaeological evidence and historical studies and offers the most extensive revisions of this classic work to date. The result is the most thorough and incisive study of the origins and development of ancient Maya civilization ever published.

Customer Reviews:

dense piece of trash.......2007-10-04

What I am finding really amazing about a lot of these textbooks, is how they get reviewed here on Amazon.com. It is as if someone is taking advantage of the rating system to pump up the image of this book. Look at most of the reviews here. The tend to all be the same length and are mysteriously boastful of the quality of the text. Maybe it is just me, but I find that all the reviews have a similar slant to them.

Anyway

I am a student at McMaster University, and I found this book to be an incoherant collection. Its dense with complicated wording

Its was obviously written by an expert, but the quality of writing is lacking. Its as if Sharer just started filling up page after page with words with no regard for structure or comprehension. Its as if the goal was "hey, lets create a university text we can sell... universities needs texts for this subject and there doesn't seem to be an existing text available...we can make some money if we write one."

Its hard to really capture the essence of the book here.

but

I was really excited to take the Mayan course and learn about this ancient civilization. This textbook really just made the course a chore.

What would have been more interesting would have been a course-pack filled with independently written articles. This textbook (like most university textbooks) is a catch-all tome of meandering.

poor quality!

Don't become a victim of the university textboo industry. For those interested in the subject search for some more popular reading.

terrible!

"If I'd had more time, I'd have written a shorter book.".......2007-07-23

Had this book been less than half its size readers would end up learning much more about the Maya from it. Unfortunately, there's much too much that belongs in an Archeology 101 class here and by the time you get to some discussion of the Maya, you're half asleep. Those of us who are not reading archeology for the first time will wish the author had just kept his discussion to the Maya, as the title suggests he will, and assumed we understood the basics.

Personally, I'm still looking for a book on the Maya so that as I travel from site to site in Quintanaroo, Yucatan, Guatemala and Honduras, I will have a basic understanding of the site I'm driving to. I just booked a trip that will book me in the area of Chac Mool soon. I'll see what I can find.

Very Imformative.......2007-07-10

By far the most thorough book on the Ancient Maya I have ever seen. It covers all the history and gives a great deal of arceological information. There is also a lot of information on the religious, social, and economic life of the Maya. The book covers in great deal the history of each Mayan polity and it is very well organized. If there is anything you want to know about the Maya it will be in this book.

A Brilliant Survey of Maya Civilization.......2007-05-25

Mormons have been hitting this review. They don't want you to read what a world renown authority on the Maya says. Your positive votes are appreciated. Thanks.

Robert J. Sharer is Professor of Anthropology and Curator of the American Section of the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. His fascinating and heavy book analyses the Maya from every angle. Although Sharer does not mention the Book of Mormon, he does give a devastating answer to those who would link Meso-American civilization with the ancient Hebrews, placing such theories squarely in the 19th century.

For example, Sharer writes: "After more than a century of gathering and analyzing archaeological evidence, we have discovered nothing to support the idea of intervention by people from the Old World." "This is not to say that accidental contacts between the Old and New World peoples could not have occurred before the age of European exploration" (p. 6).

"On the basis of the available evidence, then, the courses of cultural development in the New and Old Worlds seem clearly independent of each other and devoid of significant contact until 1492" (intro., p. 7).

The ancient Maya civilization, Sharer continues, "are to be `explained' not as a product of transplanted Old World civilization, but as the result of the processes that underlie the growth of any culture, including those that develop the kind of complexity we call civilization."

"The idea, which either explicitly or implicitly asserts that the peoples of the New World were incapable of shaping their own destiny or developing sophisticated cultures independently of Old World influence, is still popular in quarters." "But this is but one more popular myth devoid of fact, for the evidence points unmistakably toward the evolution of civilization in the New World independently of developments in the Old World."

The descriptions of Maya civilization given by Sharer stand in marked contrast with the civilizations described in the Book of Mormon. Sharer writes: "Several painted pottery vessels graphically depict the use of an enema apparatus in apparently ritual settings; the direct introduction of alcoholic or hallucinogenic substances into the colon results in immediate absorption by the body, thereby hastening the effect." The purpose was to induce visions in the Maya temples and elsewhere. The hallucinogenic substances used by the Maya included morning glory and the poison glands from tropical toads.

Further, nowhere in the North or South America did the civilizations have horses, cattle, sheep, steel weapons, swords, or chariots mentioned in the Book of Mormon.

I became fascinated with the ancient Maya when some Mormon missionaries showed me "Archaeology and the Book of Mormon, by Milton R. Hunter." Because this book (2 vols) presented evidence that was the exact opposite of what I had learned in my basic anthropology class, I investigated Dr. Hunter's sources. Alas, they did not check out.

One example was Hunter's "valuable Book of Mormon evidence" that showed him standing by a wall pointing to a Maya carving on the Temple of the Wall Panels at Chichen Itza, Mexico. The carving was supposed to represent a "horse." After much research, and not finding any reference to a carving of a horse at Chichen Itza, I discovered that the carving was the damaged portion of a backwards figure "S" jaguar serpent (a feather is the horse's head).

A detailed rubbing of the stone can be seen in the "Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel," by Ralph Roys (University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1967), plate 1.

Further, nowhere in the North or South America did the civilizations have horses, cattle, sheep, steel weapons, swords, or chariots mentioned in the Book of Mormon. The Maya of real history were so ignorant of horses that when Cortes left his lame horse in the care of the Itza Maya, they fed it meat. The animal, of course, died from this strange diet.

Terrified, the Maya erected a statue in the shape of a tapir, the closest approximation to a horse in their environment. They worshipped this "horse" as Tzimin Chac, after Tzimin, the tapir, whose profile roughly resembles a horse, no other animal save the deer even approximating the alien animal.

In short, every Mormon and non-Mormon should read Sharer's book. Two other books on archaeology that I highly recommend are: "The Mound Buiders: The Archaeology of a Myth," by Robert Silverberg, and "Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents: Myth and Method in the Study of the American Indians," by Robert Wauchope. Click on the following links, then scroll down to my review. Mound Builders
Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents Myth Method in the

Please check my one-star reviews of books by Mormon writers and my non-Mormon listmania.

Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon

Your comments--positive or negative--are appreciated. Thanks.

a great text.......2007-05-05

This is the best textbook on the Ancient Maya available today. It is a large book, but it is the most comprehensive text.

Cuba: A Short History (Cambridge History of Latin America)

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Only Academic Historians Could Make Cuba this Boring!
There is such a thing as a TOO SHORT HISTORY

Cuba: A Short History (Cambridge History of Latin America)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521436826

Book Description

Cuba: A Short History brings together four chapters from Volumes 3, 5, and 7 of The Cambridge History of Latin America to provide for scholars, students and general readers a concise history of this important island nation. Contributors, top scholars in the field, trace the political, economic, and social development of Cuba from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present day. The concluding chapter, updated for this volume, considers the dilemmas and challenges that Castro's Cuba faces in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. Each chapter is accompanied by a bibliographical essay that many readers will find useful.

Customer Reviews:

Only Academic Historians Could Make Cuba this Boring!.......2002-10-11

I used this book in a Cuban history course that I taught last year, and man did the students hate it. This collection of 4 articles from the multi-volume Cambridge History of Latin America is meant to provide a concise overview of Cuban history. But they begin in the 1600s, missing the first several hundred years, and end in the 1970s, missing the last two pivotal decades. The articles themselves are informative enough, but so boring and poorly written as to make the reader weep. This is an awful book.

There is such a thing as a TOO SHORT HISTORY.......1999-10-20

I was surprised to find a so-called history book should skip the first two hundred years of any country. At the beginning of this "history" we are hurtled into the mid-eighteenth century with absolutely no preamble; no background as to what came before. Where is the history of the discovery of the island, the natives who inhabited it, the process by which we arrived at the 18th century? Add to this the fact that each successive event is treated so lightly, with scant detail and such pompous, overblown language, and you can understand why I simply put it down after a few chapters and have not picked it up since. My advise?: If you really want to learn about Cuba, don't bother with this comic book sketch.

Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems (Edición bilingüe)

Average customer rating:

Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems
Sucede que me canso de ser hombre
Que bueno
In agreement
UN LIBRO DE COLECCION

Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems (Edición bilingüe)
Pablo Neruda
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0395544181

Book Description

In his long life as a poet, Pablo Neruda succeeded in becoming what many poets have aspired to but never achieved: a public voice, a voice not just for the people of his country but for his entire continent. Widely translated, he probably reached more readers than any poet in history; justly so, for, as he often said, his "poet's obligation" was to become a voice for all those who had no voice, an aspiration that stemmed from his long-time commitment to the communist faith. Born in 1904 in the rainy south of Chile, he enjoyed from an early age the luck of attention. One of his first books, Twenty Love Poems, became a bible for lovers in the Spanish language, and confirmed him in his poet's vocation. At the same time he pursued a lifelong career as a diplomat, serving in a series of consular posts in the Far East and Europe. In 1971, while serving as Chilean ambassador to France, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. In a famous essay, "On Impure Poetry," Neruda calls for "a poetry as impure as old clothes, as a body with its foodstains and its shame, with wrinkles, observations, dreams, wakefulness, prophesies, declarations of love and hate, stupidities, shocks, idylls, political beliefs, negations, doubts, affirmations, and taxes."

Customer Reviews:

Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems.......2006-08-21

I was a rookie when it comes to reading stylized writings like that of Pablo Neruda. I ordered the book as a friend suggested thinking it would be an impressive addition to my library not realizing that I would really enjoy his deep, thought-provoking and yet whimsical poems. My recommendation is to try it, you'll like it!!

Sucede que me canso de ser hombre.......2006-06-25

Neruda was my companion during a 7 months journey and i remember clearly as water how many times i took this book with me to read it in front of the ocean. I am not very fond to poetry but with Neruda its impossible not in fall in love with the magic of words. You should have this book in your hands and heart.

Que bueno.......2006-02-25

Que bueno la traduccion y el original... Neruda es lo mejor de los mejores. Un libro exquisito.

In agreement.......2005-08-29

I actually got this collection to study up on my Spanish, and I found myself emmersed in his tangible words. I found it interesting that some of the translations seem slightly weaker in English, but maybe that's just me.

What I like about Neruda is that his poetry can really talk to a general readership without sacrificing the aestheticism of poetic language. He seems to have an uncanny way of being brutally raw with his lanugaue, while letting the images, hard as they are, float softly, like flower petals.

Maybe I'm in love with the guy. Oh to be a poet.

UN LIBRO DE COLECCION.......2002-10-25

A MUST HAVE. Es sin duda un libro que vas a cuidar y conservar con mucho cariño. La recoleccion de poemas es brillante, exquisita, de primera. Quien no ha leido a Neruda? Lo bello del libro es que ofrece los poemas en el idioma que fueron escritos y en Ingles. La traduccion al ingles es excelente. No hay mucho que hablar sobre este libro, los poemas son una obra de arte y que esten a la vez traducidos al Ingles ya es mas que un buen regalo. No pienses dos veces en obtenerlo.

Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History

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Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History
Susan Toby Evans
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0500284407

Hispano-Americana: Introduccion a LA Literatura De LA Conquista Al Siglo XX

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Great Anthology
Introducción a la literatura Hispano-Americana

Hispano-Americana: Introduccion a LA Literatura De LA Conquista Al Siglo XX
Gladys M. Varona-Lacey
Manufacturer: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Accessories:

ASIN: 0844276790

Customer Reviews:

Great Anthology.......2003-04-14

This book is an very good anthology of hispanic writers from the 1800's to the present. It contains short stories, essays and poetry. In it's pages it includes essays from José Martí and Simón Bolivar. In the short stories categories, it includes writers like Rulfo, Alejo Carpentier,and Rosario Ferré. It also has some poems by José Martí and Gertrudis López de Avellaneda. This book is a great source for class or a great addition to your personal library.

Introducción a la literatura Hispano-Americana.......2000-09-24

In my upper level Spanish college class, I used this book last semester, and am using it again this semester. It is a wonderful book, with short stories and poems written by the best authors in Spanish literature. The questions at the end of each work help the reader to understand the meaning of each story, as well as to delve deeper into the Latino/Castillian culture. More difficult or unusual vocabulary words are footnoted at the bottom of each page. I highly recommend this book. It will be especially enjoyed by a native speaker or anyone fairly fluent in Spanish.

Average customer rating:

happy customer
revolutionary appeal for decolonization
A Passionate Argument Against Colonialism
For the US, an Eyeopener with our involvement with IRAQ
good perception

Discourse on Colonialism
Aimé Césaire , Joan Pinkham , and Robin D.G. Kelley
Manufacturer: Monthly Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1583670254
Release Date: 2001-01-01

Book Description

"Césaire's essay stands as an important document in the development of third world consciousness--a process in which [he] played a prominent role."
--Library Journal

This classic work, first published in France in 1955, profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Nearly twenty years later, when published for the first time in English, Discourse on Colonialism inspired a new generation engaged in the Civil Rights, Black Power, and anti-war movements and has sold more than 75,000 copies to date.

Aimé Césaire eloquently describes the brutal impact of capitalism and colonialism on both the colonizer and colonized, exposing the contradictions and hypocrisy implicit in western notions of "progress" and "civilization" upon encountering the "savage," "uncultured," or "primitive." Here, Césaire reaffirms African values, identity, and culture, and their relevance, reminding us that "the relationship between consciousness and reality are extremely complex. . . . It is equally necessary to decolonize our minds, our inner life, at the same time that we decolonize society." An interview with Césaire by the poet René Depestre is also included.

Customer Reviews:

happy customer.......2007-09-22

the quality of the product was the very best. it also arrived when i expected it too. i needed it in a crunch time and it came through beautifully.

revolutionary appeal for decolonization.......2007-07-16

This is a fascinating book for folks interested in the international decolonization movement of the 50s and 60s, and its relation to the Black Power movement in the States. The Discourse is beautifully written and passionately argued. The interview helps clarify Cesaire and Senghor's concept of "Negritude" as an early form of Black pride, rather than racial essentialism. The essay introduction is worthwhile since it puts the book in relation to Cesaire's poetic work and the Surrealist movement in France, America, and the Antilles. It's unduly dismissive of Cesaire's Marxist politics, especially since it goes against the spirit of the interview appended at the end.

A Passionate Argument Against Colonialism.......2005-12-25

This was a required text for a class I took this past semester, Introduction to African Studies. The author, Aime Cesaire, is known in Africa and France for his moving poetry, but he was also a politician. Born and raised in Martinique, a Caribbean island that was then a colony of France and is now a "departement", Cesaire studied in Paris on a scholarship. While he was there, he met Sedar Senghor and Leon Damas, and together they founded the Negritude movement, which rejected French colonialism in favor of a transnational black identity. After World War II, Cesaire was elected to the French National Assembly to represent Martinique, as a member of the French Communist Party. But he eventually became disillusioned, both with the Communist Party's lack of effort to address race issues and with the idea that Martinique continued on as a French colony. It was around this time, in 1955, that he published Discourse on Colonialism. This is Cesaire's attempt to describe the far-reaching impact colonialism has on both the oppressor and the oppressed. He also stresses the idea of one black identity, encompassing the peoples of Africa, African Americans in the United States, and those that live in the Caribbean. Cesaire's writing is very strong and passionate, and what I thought was most interesting about his arguments is that he uses the very words of notable European writers and philosophers to demonstrate how the colonizers' efforts often resulted in barbarization rather than civilization. It is very easy to see why this book had such a great impact on the pan-African and civil rights movements in America. Five stars for both writing and enjoyment.

For the US, an Eyeopener with our involvement with IRAQ.......2005-03-14

In Aimé Césaire's "Discourse on Colonialism," She very blatantly voices her opinion that a (European) civilization that is:

...incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization. A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to the most crucial problems is a stricken civilization. [and finally] A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization. (31)

As well as applying for both Britain's presence in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, and France's colonial presence in Africa and the Caribbean, this powerful statement could become an equation for the line drawn between one country's involvements with another.

For example, here is an unmistakable connection here to the US' involvement in Iraq. Are we as a nation decadent? Stricken? Dying? The over $155B spent in Iraq (...) instead of other national priorities. Cesaire's points are very relevant to the times as she brings further knowledge and past histories into the damage of Colonialism: "...at the present time the barbarism of Western Europe...being only surpassed...by the barbarism of the United States" (47).
She talks about the `gangrene' of impartiality, in regards to the French hearing stories that are disturbing and pornographic. "Colonization, I repeat, dehumanizes even the most civilized man" (Césaire 41). A theme prevalent in films such as Black Girl, Chocolat, and Xala. It is easy to be impartial when one is ignorant.

good perception.......2004-01-23

I read Cesaire's 'discours sur le colonialisme' in one afternoon at a coffe place and it was captivating in how intellectually he wrote, with tinges of attitude in the words. A lot of the things he wrote about I already knew from studying a lot about Africa before and what ethnocentricism vs. ethno relativism means when applying yourself and perceptions of other cultures. This book is as applicable in the 1950's as today, I found that America seems to be the new France and Britain, as far as imperialism goes.

This book has so many good points about how one must look at the non Occidental world. Whenever I hear people talking about Africa in a degrading way in that the continent needs the Western world to give it medicine, schools, etc . . .it infuriates me with the lack of research these people have done. Although one can't expect everyone to know, but they would at least get a glimpse if they read this. They would see that it is the fault of the Occidentaux which is why Africa is in the state it is now. Before Europeans went there, the people of this rich, great continent had their own cultures, laws, languages, writing, religions that worked very well for them. Because they were different than Europes ways, they were viewed as primitive and uncivilized, but you can't measure a civilization by the same standards of another, far different one. Just because they didn't write their history down, doesn't mean they didn't have it. They used oral tradition for this, which is just one example of the European's prejudice. If Europe never went there, these African civilizations very well could have flourished and become great as the passage of time went along.

Colonization has done it's damage, Cesaire talks about decolonizing our minds, I wonder how long that will take to accomplish? I would recommend this short read to anyone who wants to try to get out of their own cultural shell and think about the way the world is viewed from the viewpoint of others.

Frantz Fanon is a more compelling read though, try "black skin, white masks" or "l'an V de la revolution algerienne/a dying colonialism"

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The Companion to Latin American Studies
Philip Swanson
Manufacturer: A Hodder Arnold Publication
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0340806826

Book Description

This guide gives a brief and accessible overview of the whole of Latin American Studies. Covering all the possible topics, from colonial cultures and identity to US Latino culture and issues of race, gender and sexuality, this book situates Latin America in its historical, linguistic and cultural context. Written by an international team of experts, the Companion includes time-lines, a glossary of terms and annotated suggestions for further reading.

Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy toward Latin America

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Good history, bad theory.
HIGHLY DISTORTED!
American Ignorance and Attitudes Toward Latin American
a must read book on the subject
Rigourous and beautifull

Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy toward Latin America
Lars Schoultz
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 067492276X

Book Description

In this sweeping history of United States policy toward Latin America, Lars Schoultz shows that the United States has always perceived Latin America as a fundamentally inferior neighbor, unable to manage its affairs and stubbornly underdeveloped.

This perception of inferiority was apparent from the beginning. John Quincy Adams, who first established diplomatic relations with Latin America, believed that Hispanics were "lazy, dirty, nasty...a parcel of hogs." In the early nineteenth century, ex-President John Adams declared that any effort to implant democracy in Latin America was "as absurd as similar plans would be to establish democracies among the birds, beasts, and fishes."

Drawing on extraordinarily rich archival sources, Schoultz, one of the country's foremost Latin America scholars, shows how these core beliefs have not changed for two centuries. We have combined self-interest with a "civilizing mission"--a self-abnegating effort by a superior people to help a substandard civilization overcome its defects. William Howard Taft felt the way to accomplish this task was "to knock their heads together until they should maintain peace," while in 1959 CIA Director Allen Dulles warned that "the new Cuban officials had to be treated more or less like children." Schoultz shows that the policies pursued reflected these deeply held convictions.

While political correctness censors the expression of such sentiments today, the actions of the United States continue to assume the political and cultural inferiority of Latin America. Schoultz demonstrates that not until the United States perceives its southern neighbors as equals can it anticipate a constructive hemispheric alliance.

Customer Reviews:

Good history, bad theory........2006-10-18

This book is an attempt to combine a general text overviewing US foreign policy in Latin America (which is in general quite good) with an indictment of any Americans who view culture as important to understanding Latin America (which is based far more on ideological ferver than evidence). If Schoultz had dropped the ideological baggage, this could have been a very good book. But he did not, so I will give it 2 stars. Unfortunately, as his book progresses, the ideology gets stronger and stronger.

Lars Schoultz's book writes that American foreign policy towards Latin America has been determined "a pervasive believe that Latin Americans constitute an inferior branch of the human species (Preface)". Much of this book is filled with quotes from various members of the American government making very unpolitically correct comments about Latin Americans, but I don't think that any of them show that American officials view Latin Americans as "an inferior branch of the human species." Schoultz's has a very disappointing tendency to jump from interesting historical narrative to excessive ideological rhetoric. The author seems to think that any observation of problems in Latin American being related to traditional institutions or values is little short of racism.

The biggest problem with his thesis is that he cannot explain all the twist-and-turns over time and geographical variation of American foreign policy with an explanation that never changes (American's feeling of Latin inferiority). In most cases, he does not even try, which make me wonder how much he really believes his own theory.
Why did the US make Puerto Rico a protectorate but not Cuba (difference in American attitudes?; I doubt it).
Why intevene in Guatamala in the 1950s and not Bolivia both of whom were leftist (difference in American attitudes?; I doubt it)?
Why did the US intervene between 1898 and 1920s but not in the 1930s and 1940s (difference in American attitudes?; I doubt it)?
Are American attitudes the same for Jamaica, Haitia, Suriname and Brazil (some non-Hispanic Latin American countries?
What were Latin American attitudes towards Americans?

Schoultz gives no evidence that American attitudes towards Latins is the driving force behind these changes. Nor can he explain why some countries played a far more important role (Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Cuba) than others (Costa Rica, Brazil, etc).

Schoultz says that "Today's public opinion polls indicate that the rough outlines of the 'Latin American' mind-set are shared by the broad spectrum of the US public (pg xvii)." OK, great, so show the evidence. He does not in this page or any other. This is maddening tendency that he has.

The heart of the matter is that Schoultz seems to completely reject the use of culture as an explanation for anything. He then accuses the person who believes in cultural explanations as believing that "Latin are inherently inferior." Shoultz claims that all those who believe that cultural is an important explanation of Latin American culture and institutions are merely making an "educated guess" (pg 382). He also states that "it may be possible that such a thing as "Hispanic culture" actually exist. My guess is that the people living in Latin American would be far more offended by this belief than anything documented in this book.

HIGHLY DISTORTED!.......2003-02-17

This book presents a highly distorted analysis of U.S. policy toward Latin America that reflects the leftist political correctness of so many universities and their misguided professors, who are often members of the Latin American Studies Association. It is a perfect example of the destructive role some academics have played in U.S.-Latin American relations as so devastatingly described in Lawrence Harrison's book "The Pan American Dream".

To better appreciate the intellectual origins of Schoultz's book, readers should see "The Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot" written by some of the region's most prominent writers--Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Alvaro Vargas Llosa, as well as their "Fabricantes de Miseria". You should also review "The Latin Americans: Their Love Hate Relationship with the United States" by the Venezuelan Carlos Rangel. Schoultz conveniently ignores these and other books by leading Latin Americans that confirm the cultural views of many U.S. and European diplomats.

Even great luminaries like Francisco de Miranda of Venezuela and Simon Bolivar himself used cultural characteristics to describe the differences between the United States and Latin America. Modern day writers such as the famous Peruvian novelist, Mario Vargas Llosa, and the Argentine, Mariano Grondona, among others, continue to use similar cultural analyses to explain why the U.S. has become the most advanced country in the hemisphere while Latin America remains mired in poverty, underdevelopment, corruption and political instability.

In a similar manner, prominent European observers such as the great Alexis de Tocqueville, used cultural phenomenon to explain the reasons why the United States and Latin America evolved along different paths. The views described by Schoultz are not unique to American diplomats but reflect long-standing observations made by many analysts, including some of the region's leading intellectuals and statesmen. Schoultz's arrogant attitude that only U.S. academics understand Latin Americans does a tremendous disservice to the history of U.S.-Latin American relations and to the U.S diplomatic service.

American Ignorance and Attitudes Toward Latin American.......2002-10-01

In this readable and comprehensive book Schoultz describes the relations between the United States and Latin America. He shows the domestic politics, attitudes and individuals that made Americas relations with Latin America. We see the ignorance and attitude of superiority that was first stated by John Adams, and never totally went away. He demonstrates how England's influence in Latin America effected American relations. Schoultz also shows the ignorance, actions and attitudes of a series of diplomats, and how they made policy.

Schoultz describes how slavery effected the domestic politics that helped create the American relations toward Latin America until the Civil War. After the Civil War American began a policy of paternalism and then imperialism. America had two goals in her relations with Latin America, to help Latin America, and to replace European influence in Latin America. Good intentions and ignorance lead to a series of interventions in countries like Cuba and Nicaragua. Later America developed the policies of Dollar Diplomacy, and then the Good Neighbor policy. Finally we see the attempts to eliminate the influence of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in Latin America.
.
Schoultz concludes that American policy in Latin America was dictated by security, economic interests and domestic politics. Policy was made and executed by people who often tried to help Latin America and failed through ignorance of the local conditions, and then blamed their failures on the Latin Americans, maintaining the superior attitude toward Latin Americans.

There is a series of good maps to clarify the test are included. Schoultz uses a wide variety of primary sources to tell this rarely told story

a must read book on the subject.......2002-06-15

It's worthwile the time I spent on it. At the beginning the chapters go smoothly then the author's inspiration becomes a blow by blow account. From the Revolution to the Civil war period, the US-Latin American relations are described with more clarity and vigour, a 5 stars. After the civil war, something is lost, 3 stars. However, it's a very interesting book and useful to understand how US is so involved in countries that at first sight seem to have a marginal strategic interest.

Rigourous and beautifull.......2000-07-29

The author presents the USA-latin america relations over 200 years. The aim of the author is not only to present the facts, but more importantly, the perception of Latin america by US policy makers which motivated the actions, and how this perception has lasted over this period. This is a huge research work, based nearly exclusively on original documents. The work however, is exposed in a very synthetic and elegant way. I would rate it as a classic History work.

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Accessible, well written overview of Nicaragua's history and failed attempts to free itself from U.S. imperialism

Nicaragua, 4th Edition
Thomas W. Walker
Manufacturer: Westview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0813338824

Book Description

This new and thoroughly revised edition of Nicaragua details the country's unique history, culture, social reality, economics, foreign relations, and politics. Its historical coverage considers Nicaragua from before independence as well as during the nationalist liberal era, the US marine occupation, the Somoza dictatorship, the Sandinista regime, and the conservative restoration following 1990. The Fourth Edition documents how the more enduring reality of this Central American country may not be the Sandinista Revolution but the historical and ongoing interventions by which the United States - the "eagle" to the north - continues to shape Nicaraguan political, economic, and social life. The new edition also includes a fully updated annotated bibliography. Praise for the third edition:

Customer Reviews:

Accessible, well written overview of Nicaragua's history and failed attempts to free itself from U.S. imperialism .......2006-08-01

The leader of the U.S. trained and equipped National Guard Anastasio Somoza Garcia seized power in Nicaragua in 1936. He was an S.O.B., but he was our S.O.B. as Franklin Roosevelt immortally said privately in 1939 when Somoza visited him in Washington D.C. Somoza wanted the National Guard officers and enlisted men to enrich themselves in mafia-style rackets such as prostitution, according to Walker, so they would be dependent on him for their self-enrichment and would thus constitute a force immune from popular discontent. Somoza Garcia's son Luis succeeded him after his assassination in 1956. Luis set up a lot of bureaucracies supposedly devoted to social services and economic planning, but these were in reality mainly used as a vehicle to funnel U.S. aid money to the Somoza family and its cronies. Walker cites the particularly blatant case of how the government used U.S. aid money after an earthquake in December 1972 completely destroyed Managua.

Anastasio Somoza Debayle Jr. took over as president from his brother in 1967. Anastasio Jr. reinstated a "state of siege" and sent the National Guard into the Countryside, where the (FSLN) Sandinistas were involved in stimulating peasant activism, after a December 1974 successful hostage taking operation by the Sandinistas. The Guard proceeded to rape and kill and pillage thousands. Many American Catholic clerical and lay workers witnessed these actions and the U.S. congress was moved to hold hearings.

In 1977, President Carter suspended military aid to Somoza in order to force him to relax somewhat his censorship of the press, thinking that the U.S. could afford for Somoza to do so without the status quo in Nicaragua being disrupted. However, in early 1978, after increasing massacres of civilians in the tens of thousands by the National Guard Carter resumed economic and military aid to Somoza. The uprising had begun in early 1978 after the assassination of newspaper editor Pedro Joaquin Chamarro. The Carter administration, in conjunction with the Organization of American States, eventually tried to enforce its policy of "Somocismo sin Somoza"....

Walker describes how the Carter administration refused to send arms to the Sandinistas and looked the other way as the military oligarchy in Honduras allowed remnants of the National Guard, helped by trainers from the Argentine neonazi military regime, to organize the force which would become the Contras. ....

The Reaganites refused to sell arms to the Sandinistas, cut off all aid, and successfully pressured the French to end an arms deal with the Sandinistas in 1981. Increasingly, the Sandinistas were forced to rely on Soviet block arms. Walker notes that the rifles, AK-47's and tanks that the Nicaraguans received from the Soviet block were small in number and often old and decrepit. Clearly the Sandinistas were seeking military aid from the Soviet Block because the Reaganites had launched a full scale proxy terrorist war against them. The Contras deliberately attacked civilian infrastructure and murdered teachers, doctors and engineers. The attacks on oil storage and port facilities by the Contras in 1983 and 84' caused Venezuela and Mexico to suspend oil shipments--Nicaragua was then forced to turn to the Soviet block for its petroleum needs. The FSLN managed to maintain fairly extensive economic and political relations with Western Europe and capitalist countries in the third world but the U.S. media preferred to ignore this.

In the early 80's, Walker notes the Sandinistas achieved some remarkable successes. Nicaragua's infant mortality rate was reduced from 121 per 1000 in 1978 to 90 per 1000 in 1983. The Kissinger Commission report of 1984 blamed the Sandinistas because it said that Nicaragua's GDP was reduced by 38 percent from 1977 to 1983. This was deceptive, Walker notes, because that statistic had in it the last two and a half years of the rule of Somoza when the country was largely destroyed. In the years 1980-83, Walker notes, the Nicaraguan economy actually grew by an average of 7 percent, while the rest of Central America's economies declined by 14 percent.

In spite of some mild repression (not comparable to U.S. backed terror in Guatemala and El Salvador) in response to the country being under U.S. backed terrorist attack, reactionary newspapers like La Prensa were allowed to violently attack the government and receive funding from the CIA. The CIA instigated protests by the Nicaraguan opposition which attempted to provoke the Sandinistas into repressive actions, Walker quotes House Speaker Jim Wright revealing in January 1988. Meanwhile, in U.S. client states Guatemala and El Salvador newspaper offices were being blown up by the military backed death squads, and newspaper editors were left disemboweled by the side of the road. In 1984, the Sandinistas had an election which was judged free and fair by a wide variety observer delegations, including from the British parliament and House of Lords, Danish and Irish Parliaments, etc. Disruption of opposition rallies by Sandinista "turbas" only occurred about 5 times out of 250 instances according to election analysts. Walker quotes a statistic to the effect that 46 of the 48 top Contra officers had been officers in Somoza's National Guard--I think he got this from Edgar Chamarro, the former Contra spokesman.

The U.S. escalated its economic strangulation and terror attacks on Nicaragua and the latter was eventually forced to devote the majority of its budget to defense. In 1990, the Sandinistas held an election, as the 1987 constitution had mandated them to do and the Nicaraguan electorate, under the threat of continued U.S. funding of Contra terrorists if the Sandinistas won, voted in the UNO. The U.S. had achieved its goal of restoring the old Somoza era social order within Nicaragua. Walker gives an extensive discussion of the post-1990 social order. Nicaragua ranked 61st on the UN Human Development Index in 1990; it ranked 116th by 2000.
Walker gives an instructive look at how the miserable rural proletariat of Nicaragua was created by the late 19th century.

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