THE STATE OF LATIN AMERICA

by German Arciniegas ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 1952

A definitive survey, politically, of South and Central America and the Caribbean countries by a man who has earned a good reputation in North America as a professor of Latin American studies at Columbia University. The chapter by chapter comment on the recent political history of each country is prefaced by the prediction of a strong and world important future for the southern continent. Its population is now larger than that of the United States and economic development is paralleling the swiftness of the United States in the last century. Further, he says that socially and politically, there are two Latin Americas; one, the visible, extant forms of government whatever they are, and the other, the but periodically-seen seething masses of revolt. Argentina has a tyrannical government. Venezuela, Colombia and Peru, among others, have dictatorships. Throughout the discussions, extremely factual and well planned in themselves, there is a predilection for leftist-socialist political tendencies wherever they appear and it is on these that Mr. Arciniegas seems to pin his hopes. As to communist elements, present Latin American conditions of poverty and revolt should provide fertile ground for development, which, according to the author, has not taken place. It is on such points as this and a certain whimsicality of spot judgement, due perhaps to the author's long absence from his homeland or his attempt to produce a livelier text, that the book may run into argument. On the whole though it is a work of need and value. Among the appendices there is a well compiled chronological table of events since 1930, population tables, the charter of the Inter-American Press Association.

Pub Date: April 21, 1952

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1952

Categories: NONFICTION