In Cruel Modernity, Jean Franco examines the conditions under which extreme cruelty became the instrument of armies, governments, rebels, and rogue groups in Latin America. She seeks to understand how extreme cruelty came to be practiced in many parts of...

The story of the growing resistance of Mexican communities to the poverty that forces people to migrate to the United StatesPeople across Mexico are being forced into migration, and while 11 percent of that country’s population lives north of the US...

A brilliant biography that “reads like a wonderful novel but is researched like a masterwork of history” (Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs), this is the epic story of the famous South American general and statesman Simón Bolívar.SIMÓN BOLÍ VAR —El...

This new edition of C. L. R. James's classic Beyond a Boundary celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of one of the greatest books on sport and culture ever written.Named one of the Top 50 Sports Books of All Time by Sports Illustrated"Beyond a Boundary . ...

A passionate and insightful account by a leading historian of Haiti that traces the sources of the country's devastating present back to its turbulent and traumatic historyEven before the devastating 2010 earthquake, Haiti was known as a benighted place...

Malintzin was the indigenous woman who translated for Hernando Cortés in his dealings with the Aztec emperor Moctezuma in the days of 1519 to 1521. "Malintzin," at least, was what the Indians called her. The Spanish called her doña Marina, and she has...

Selected as a 2012 Outstanding Title by AAUP University Press Books for Public and Secondary School LibrariesThe history of how six Latin American countries acknowledge―or deny―their African past12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World during...

In 1521, the city of Tenochtitlan, magnificent center of the Aztec empire, fell to the Spaniards and their Indian allies. Inga Clendinnen's account of the Aztecs recreates the culture of that city in its last unthreatened years. It provides a vividly...

During the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, coloniality emerged as a new structure of power as Europeans colonized the Americas and built on the ideas of Western civilization and modernity as the endpoints of historical time and Europe as the center of...

The epic story of the fall of the Inca Empire to Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in the aftermath of a bloody civil war, and the recent discovery of the lost guerrilla capital of the Incas, Vilcabamba, by three American explorers.In 1532, the...

Drawing on newly discovered sources and writing with brilliance, drama, and profound historical insight, Hugh Thomas presents an engrossing narrative of one of the most significant events of Western history.Ringing with the fury of two great empires...

This Very Short Introduction employs the disciplines of history, religious studies, and anthropology as it illuminates the complexities of Aztec life. Readers meet a people highly skilled in sculpture, astronomy, city planning, poetry, and philosophy,...

In 1970 a young dancer named Alma Guillermoprieto left New York to take a job teaching at Cuba’s National School of Dance. For six months, she worked in mirrorless studios (it was considered more revolutionary); her poorly trained but ardent students...

An account of the mysterious fall of the ancient Maya civilization evaluates current theories and myths, citing sixteenth-century evidence of a residual population and offering a portrait of its Late Classic society beset by overly ambitious nobles,...

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive analysis of three decades of neoliberal reforms in Chile. Chile is often described as a "model" of neoliberal development policy. Marcus Taylor shows that the reality is very different. Examining the...

Women Who Live Evil Lives documents the lives and practices of mixed-race, Black, Spanish, and Maya women sorcerers, spell-casters, magical healers, and midwives in the social relations of power in Santiago de Guatemala, the capital of colonial Central...

In the mid-1950s, with planning and funding from the United States, Mexico embarked on an ambitious campaign to eradicate malaria, which was widespread and persistent. This new history explores the politics of that campaign. Marcos Cueto describes the...

Dilemmas of Modernity provides an innovative approach to the study of contemporary Bolivia, moving telescopically between social, political, legal, and discursive analyses, and drawing from a range of disciplinary traditions. Based on a decade of...

To understand Latin America’s political culture, and to understand why it differs so greatly from that of the United States, one must look beyond the political history of the region, Howard J. Wiarda explains in this comprehensive book. A highly...

Winner of the 2009 Lora Romero First Book Prize from the American Studies Association2009 Choice Outstanding Academic TitleExplores the transnational movements of Mexican migrants, including their expressive culture and social movement practicesMigrant...