Modern Latin America since 1800: everyday life and politics
This textbook offers an interpretive overview of the history of the Latin American region since the mid-eighteenth century. Its central focus is the struggle of ordinary folks to control their daily lives. It examines the social, economic, and political institutions Latin Americans built and rebuilt, such as families, governments (from village to national levels), churches, political parties, labor unions, schools, and armies, through the lives of the people forged them. It explores the texture of everyday life. Mark Wasserman taught Latin American History at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA, for forty years. He is the author of four books on Mexico and two bestselling textbooks on Latin American History. He has won several major fellowships and awards for his scholarship. Covering the sweep of Latin American history from the perspective of the everyday experiences of the people who made it, Modern Latin America, tells the story of the forces that shaped the region and how people from various walks of life negotiated the changing dynamics of race, class, gender, political conflict and power to create the societies of today. Integrating current scholarship, the book covers the major themes and events of Latin American history while breaking away from a dry history of states and institutions to provide a window on the dynamics of how people shaped, were impacted by, and lived their history.
