Latin Americans - General & Miscellaneous, Public Opinion - Regional, Economic Conditions in Latin America, United States History - General & Miscellaneous, Social Conditions - Latin America, Public Opinion - United States, Latin America - Politics & Gove
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Overview
With this penetrating study, James William Park provides the first comprehensive account of nearly a century of U.S. thinking on the reasons for Latin America's apparent "backwardness," from 1870, when we debated annexation of the Dominican Republic, through the 1960s, with the implementation of John F. Kennedy's doomed Alliance for Progress. In the course of analyzing U.S. perceptions of the region, Park explores our diplomatic, military, and economic ties to its nations, as well as the U.S. rise to global prominence and the larger intellectual currents that shaped our attitudes. Our idea of Latin American underdevelopment, Park finds, sprang directly from the colonial notion that the people to our south were racially inferior and handicapped by an authoritarian, medieval legacy and a tropical setting inimical to "progress." Drawing on documents left by travelers, businessmen, scholars, and others, many of whom had never ventured south of the Rio Grande, Park illuminates what he calls a consistent and enduring pattern of disdain. Venturing into the 1920s and 1930s, Park shows us how this pattern began to moderate as scholars contributed to the literature and the United States suffered the crisis of the Great Depression. After World War II, he demonstrates, the old interpretations gave way to more sophisticated understanding. The climax of his story is Kennedy's 1961 launching of the Alliance for Progress, which arrived on the heels of Fidel Castro's rise to power. The failure of the Alliance, which Park traces closely, threw into doubt the modernization theory on which it was based, and encouraged a new, competing paradigm: dependency theory."Discusses explanations commonly given in US for Latin American underdevelopment from 1870-1965. Explanations were based primarily on perceptions, and more often misperceptions, of the culture, people, and environment of the region. Interesting"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.
Editorials
Booknews
Provides an account of nearly a century of US thinking on the reasons for Latin America's apparent "backwardness," from 1870, when annexation of the Dominican Republic was debated, through the 1960s, with the implementation of John F. Kennedy's doomed Alliance for Progress. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Book Details
Published
August 1, 1995
Publisher
Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, c1995.
Pages
312
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780807119693