Born in Blood & Fire: A Concise History of Latin America - Perfect for History Students & Latin American Culture Enthusiasts

Prof. Chasteen has done what many historians seek to do, but which many fail: write a concise history that is easy to read and leaves readers with a deeper understanding of the complexities of a region's past. I a word, _Born in Blood and Fire_ is magnificent. The history begins with European contact and continues through the early 21st century. Along the way, Chasteen not only addresses political history, but also highlights the role of women, touches on art, literature and music as it reflects the time, addresses economic trends and elegantly relates the issues and conflicts of the past to the present.The book, while chronological in organization, is broken up thematically, each "theme" supported by events across Latin America. The first "theme" is the nature of European colonization (the economic relationship between the New World and the Old as well as - and perhaps most importantly - the racial hierarchy that will dominate the region for the next 500 years), followed by the independence movements of the early 19th century and Latin American efforts a "Progress" (with a capital "P"), leading to Neo-colonialism (of the late 19th and early 20th centuries), and subsequent nationalist an revolutionary movements of the mid-twentieth century (largely racially focused, but also somewhat economic) before concluding with the neoliberalism of the present day.The only criticism I have is that much of the book focuses on Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Brazil (to be clear, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, and Venezuela do receive some attention), while Central America (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala) is really only mentioned in the last chapters of the book. However, I temper this criticism with the realization that Chasteen's intent is to write a concise history - and therefore has made, in my opinion, careful and judicious choices of how to tell the history of an entire continent.For armchair historians, I cannot recommend this history strongly enough. Students being introduced to Latin American history will (as much as possible) enjoy the book - it is written in an engaging and transparent manner, the broad currents of history strongly and clearly demonstrated.