Kirkus’ Review
Reviewed in The Western Political Quarterly © 1952.
Reviewed in The Hispanic American Historical Review © 1957.
From Encyclopedia.com:
Colombian educator and historian German Arciniegas (1900 - 1999) was a noted intellectual and journalist whose criticism of Latin-American dictators forced him to live in exile in the United States for almost two decades beginning in the 1940s. Educator, historian, and civil servant German Arciniegas represented his native Colombia as ambassador to several countries, while also serving in the Colombian Ministry of Education and as a member of the Colombian Parliament for three terms. The author of 1986's America in Europe: A History of the New World in Reverse and many other books, he promoted a non-Eurocentric view of world history in which the Americas played a positive role. Arciniegas also became a noted journalist and lived abroad from 1942 through 1960 because of his strong criticism of the military dictatorships then in power throughout Latin America. Arciniegas was born in a rural area near Bogota, Colombia, on December 6, 1900, to dairy owners Rafael and Aurora (Angueyra) Arciniegas, and as a child he developed a great love for the countryside. He came from a long line of political agitators: his great grandfather, Pedro Figueredo, was executed by Spanish officials for leading a rebel Cuban force and penning that country's national anthem, "La Bayamesa."
Biblioteca Virtual Luis Ángel Arango:
En 1952, Arciniegas escribe Entre la Libertad y el Miedo, el cual es un amplio reportaje sobre los fenómenos del fascismo, el nazismo, el peronismo y las dictaduras que cundían por doquier en Hispanoamérica. A pesar de la gran calidad de sus obras, Arciniegas, en los años sesenta y setenta, no es acogido por los intelectuales colombianos; hasta la década de los ochenta, cuando vuelve al país tras un largo viajes por Venezuela, es acogido y nombrado decano de la Facultad de filosofía y letras de la Universidad de los Andes y Presidente de la Academia colombiana de historia.