Description
Book SynopsisA collection exploring the ideological hardening and accelerated polarization that marked twentieth-century Latin America and its epochal cycles of revolutionary and counterrevolutionary violence.
Trade Review“Showcasing the work of a remarkable group of scholars, this collection provides a sweeping reinterpretation of Latin America’s twentieth century and a thought-provoking intervention into our understanding of the history and meaning of political violence.”—
Laurent Dubois, author of
Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution“The abstract rejection of violence is one of the pillars of today’s hegemonic liberal ideology, and is paradoxically used to legitimize the most brutal forms of actual violence. This is why this outstanding book not only offers an excellent study of the Latin American revolutionary process, but has universal relevance. Its precise analysis of the necessary role of emancipatory violence against the violence of the system itself brings a breath of fresh air into the stale moralism of the liberal Left. A much-needed awakening from our humanitarian dogmatic dream!”—
Slavoj Žižek“. . . [E]xcellent case studies based on careful archival work that broaden our understanding of Latin America’s experience of the Cold War in the twentieth century.” -- Paulo Drinot * Cold War History *
“The combined expertise of Greg Grandin and Gilbert M. Joseph makes
A Century of Revolution analytically rich, especially in describing of the growing agency of mass organizations. . . .
A Century of Revolution offers a nuanced theoretical framework, which can help historians interested in new models of analysis to explain the dynamics of late-twentieth-century Latin America.” -- Alejandro Quintana * History: Reviews of New Books *
“Yet few works provide a perspective as wide-ranging as
A Century of Revolution. This important collection — with its careful attention to causes, processes, and outcomes — goes a long way toward debunking the widespread view that political violence is ‘natural’ to Latin America.” -- Michael Gobat * Hispanic American Historical Review *
“A Century of Revolution has much of value to offer. . . . The ten essays by Latin Americanists in A Century of Revolution bear out the considerable historiographical value of the reinterpretive efforts in which Grandin and Joseph have been engaged for over a decade.“ -- Arthur Schmidt * A Contracorriente *
"
A Century of Revolution offers the field a new way to periodize and organize instances of revolutionary and counterrevolutionary violence. . . . [It] provides a powerful corrective, illuminating how world-historical events like the overthrow of Salvador Allende or the bola of the Mexican Revolution were anything but predetermined, reconstructing the cycles of escalation and radicalization that produced them, and chronicling the unstable chemical reactions sparked as the twin Furies of rebellion and reaction met." -- Kristen Weld * Latin American Research Review *
Table of ContentsLiving in Revolutionary Time: Coming to Terms with the Violence of Latin America's Long Cold War / Greg Grandin 1
Part One: The First Cold War
violence and Terror in the Russian and Mexican Revolutions / Friedrich Katz 45
Mueras y matanza: Spectacles of Terror and Violence in Postrevolutionary Mexico / Jocelyn Olcott 62
On the Road to "El Porvenir": A Revolutionary and Counterrevolutionary Violence in El Salvador and Nicaragua / Jeffrey R. Gould 88
Ránquil: Violence and Peasant Politics on Chile's Southern Frontier / Thomas Miller Klubock 121
Part Two: The Cuban Conjuncture
The Trials: Violence and Justice in the Aftermath of the Cuban Revolution / Michelle Chase 163
Beyond Paradox: Counterrevolution and the Origins of Political Culture in the Cuban Revolution, 1959-2009 / Lillian Guerra 199
Part Three: The Weight of the Night
The Furies of the Andes: Violence and Terror in the Chilean Revolution and Counterrevolution / Peter Winn 239
A Headlong Rush into the Future: Violence and Revolution in a Guatemalan Indigenous Village / Carlota McAllister 276
"People's War," "Dirty War": Cold War Legacy and the End of History in Postwar Peru / Gerardo Rénique 309
The Cold War That Didn't End: Paramilitary Modernization in Medellín Miracle, Colombia / Forrest Hylton 338
Reflections
You Say You Want a Counterrevolution: Well, You Know, We All Want to Change the World / Corey Robin 371
Thoughts on Violence and Modernity in Latin America / Neil Larsen 381
Conclusions
Latin America's Long Cold War: A Century of Revolutionary Process and U.S. Power / Gilbert M. Joseph 397
History as Containment: An Interview with Arno J. Mayer / Greg Grandin 415
Contributors 423
Index 427
