Modern Latin America
History 142- Spring 2011

Class Schedule	Texts/Films	Guidelines	Requirements

Overview

Latin America is burning and turning red.  From Hugo Chávez’s 21st Century Socialism in Venezuela to Evo Morales' nationalization of oil and gas in Bolivia, from the resurrection of Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega to the war in Colombia, from Fidel Castro’s illness to the Oaxaca rebellion in Mexico, the continent appears more on the edge of social crisis than ever before.  In the twentieth century, development models including populist industrialization, socialist nationalism, and neo-liberal modernization have all failed quite dramatically.  In the past twenty years, the super-rich have grown richer, while the super-poor have grown poorer and become a bigger percentage of the population.  Meanwhile, rich and middle class women seek plastic surgery and appetite suppressants to become frighteningly thin to conform to first world standards of beauty while their poor counterparts grow fatter on unhealthy food.  Millions of Latin Americans have been forced from their homes to cities, to neighboring countries, to Europe and to the US.  Throughout the semester we will seek an historical understanding of how Latin America has arrived at the edge of the abyss.

The history of modern Latin America, from independence at the beginning of the nineteenth century until the present, is one that continues to have a profound political, social and economic impact on the United States.  This course will provide a context for the dizzying array of episodic news reports about the vast America that lies south of the Rio Grande.  It is a survey in that we will focus on broad themes, but we will also be exploring, as much as possible, the particular experiences of individual countries and social classes.  Themes that we will be investigating include nation-building, industrialization, modernization, development, indigenous rights, racism, revolution, “neo-colonial” or “dependent” relations with advanced industrialized countries, military rule, and social movements.

We will begin and end the course with a discussion of more recent trends in Latin America, including the rise of neoliberalism and the concurrent re-emergence of social rebellion from below.   

Elliott Young Associate Professor of History Lewis & Clark College 0615 SW Palatine Hill Rd. Portland, OR 97219 Tel. 503-768-7454 eyoung@lclark.edu	Class M, W 11:30- 1 pm Miller 102 Office Hours: M, W 9:30-11 am or by appt. Office: Miller 424