History / History by country / South America

Bolivar: American Liberator

by Marie Arana

It is astonishing that Simón Bolívar, the great Liberator of South America, is not better known in the United States. He freed six countries from Spanish rule, traveled more than 75,000 miles on horseback...

Havana Nocturne

by T. J. English

To underworld kingpins Meyer Lansky and Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Cuba was the greatest hope for the future of American organized crime in the post-Prohibition years. In the 1950s, the Mob—with the corrupt,...

At the Devil's Table: The Untold Story of the Insider Who Brought Down the Cali Cartel

by William C. Rempel

In this riveting and relentless nonfiction thriller, award-winning investigative reporter William C. Rempel tells the harrowing story of former Cali cartel insider Jorge Salcedo, an ordinary man facing an extraordinary...

The Loss of El Dorado: A Colonial History

by V.S. Naipaul

The history of Trinidad begins with a delusion: the belief that somewhere nearby on the South American mainland lay El Dorado, the mythical kingdom of gold. In this extraordinary and often gripping book, V....

Latin America: Its Problems and Its Promise: A Multidisciplinary Approach

by Jan Knippers Black

Now in a fifth edition, Latin America has been updated to reflect the region's growing optimism as economies stabilize, trade diversifies, and political systems become more participatory. This multidisciplinary...

The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times

by Anthony DePalma

This dramatic story of how a New York Times reporter helped Castro come to power offers illuminating insight into the fraught history of Cuban-American relations and the precarious balance between truth and...

Nicaragua: Living in the Shadow of the Eagle

by Thomas W. Walker & Christine J. Wade

Succinct and updated history of Nicaragua’s politics and foreign relations, with emphasis on the U.S. influence in shaping Nicaraguan life since the Somoza era and the Sandinista Revolution

Everything You Need to Know About Latino History

by Himilce Novas

The popular primer to Latino life and culture-updated for 2008

Latinos represent the fastest-growing ethnic population in the United States. In an accessible and entertaining question-and-answer format, this...

River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana's Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon

by Buddy Levy

From the acclaimed author of Conquistador comes this thrilling account of one of history’s greatest adventures of discovery. With cinematic immediacy and meticulous attention to historical detail, here is...

The Last of the Tribe: The Epic Quest to Save a Lone Man in the Amazon

by Monte Reel

Throughout the centuries, the Amazon has yielded many of its secrets, but it still holds a few great mysteries. In 1996 experts got their first glimpse of one: a lone Indian, a tribe of one, hidden in the forests...

Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana and Washington

by Ann Louise Bardach

From the award-winning reporter and go-to source on Cuban-Miami politics Ann Louise Bardach comes a riveting, eye-opening account of the last chapter in the life of Fidel Castro: his near death and marathon...

Facundo: Or, Civilization and Barbarism

by Domingo Sarmiento & Ilan Stavans

Ostensibly a biography of the gaucho barbarian Juan Facundo Quiroga, Facundo is also a complex, passionate work of history, sociology, and political commentary, and Latin America's most important essay of the...

Until Death Do Us Part

by Ingrid Betancourt

Ingrid Betancourt, a senator and a presidential candidate in Colombia, grew up among diplomats, literati, and artists who congregated at her parents' elegant home in Paris, France. Her father served as Colombia's...

Tax Systems and Tax Reforms in Latin America

by Luigi Bernardi, Alberto Barreix & Anna Marenzi

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of tax systems and tax reforms in a number of Latin American countries since the early 1990's, including Argentina and Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico, Paraguay, Colombia,...

The Construction of Muslim Identities in Contemporary Brazil

by Cristina Maria de Castro

This book represents a contribution to the studies of Muslim minorities, and can be compared and contrasted to the analysis of Islam in Europe and in the USA. Besides presenting data about the largest Muslim...

Kings for Three Days: The Play of Race and Gender in an Afro-Ecuadorian Festival

by Jean Muteba Rahier

A vibrant study of symbol and social significance in one of Ecuador's black populations

Che Wants to See You: The Untold History of Che Guevara

by Ciro Bustos, Anne Wright & Jon Lee Anderson

Riveting memoir of revolution in South America by Che Guevara's Argentine lieutenant

Ciro Bustos was Che Guevara's Argentinian lieutenant, fighting beside El Comandante in Bolivia. Here, for the first time, Bustos...

Guerrilla Warfare: Authorized Edition

by Ernesto Che Guevara & Harry "Pombo" Villegas

A new, authorized and revised edition of a classic 1960s text on revolution by Che Guevara.

Painful Birth: How Chile Became a Free and Prosperous Society

by James Rolph Edwards

Painful Birth discusses how Chile escaped becoming a communist state in the late 1970s and transformed into a free and prosperous society. It narrates the events and explains the economic policies, institutional...

The Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America

by Kenneth J. Andrien

The Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America is an anthology of stories of largely ordinary individuals struggling to forge a life during the unstable colonial period in Latin America. Now fully updated with...