Saturday, June 24, 2017

The Making of the Good Neighbor Policy


Wood, Bryce, The Making of the Good Neighbor Policy, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1967.

Reviewed in Pacific Historical Review © 1962.

Reviewed in The Journal of Conflict Resolution © 1962.

From the Preface:
This book attempts to delineate the rationale of the Good Neighbor policy. It came to be written out of an interest in the nature and limits of enduring, pacific, political relationships between the United States, as a great power, and the Latin American countries, as lesser powers, in the period from 1926 to 1943. The chief problems with which it deals are those of the origins and consequences of the formal and unreserved abandonment of the use of force by the United States in its relations with Latin American countries. These relations did not develop haphazardly after 1926; they were guided at first by impulses and later by political ideas that began to take the shape of principles with the sharpening of appreciation of the nature of this interstate society from which coercion was banned.

Venezuela


Lieuwen, Edwin, Venezuela, 2nd Edition, London: Oxford University Press, 1965.

Reviewed in The Americas.

From the Preface:
I lived in Caracas in 1950 and 1951, during which time I had an opportunity to visit all twenty states, all the major cities, and every oilfield and refinery. One by-product of this sojourn was my book Petroleum in Venezuela, published by the University of California Press in 1954. I visited Venezuela again during 1956. Over the past decade I have had good opportunities to follow closely the extraordinarily rapid political, social, and economic changes that have characterized Venezuela's recent history, either from my United States government posts dealing with Latin American affairs (1952-3, 1955-7) or from my academic employment as Professor of Modern Latin American History (1953-5, and 1957 to the present time). I also keep up a steady correspondence with my many good Venezuelan friends.


Edwin Lieuwen (February 8, 1923 – May 25, 1988) was an American historian, professor, and author. His area of expertise was focused on Latin America. His work was a major precursor to the establishing of the Latin American Institute.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

The Sociology of Slavery: An Analysis of the Origins, Development, and Structure of Negro Slave Society in Jamaica


Patterson, Orlando, The Sociology of Slavery: An Analysis of the Origins, Development, and Structure of Negro Slave Society in Jamaica, Jamaica: Sangsters Book Stores Ltd., 1973.

Reviewed in Social and Economic Studies © 1968.

Reviewed in Caribbean Studies © 1969.

Orlando Patterson is a Jamaican-born American historical and cultural sociologist known for his work regarding issues of race in the United States, as well as the sociology of development. His book Freedom, Volume One, or Freedom in the Making of Western Culture (1991), won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction.

Cartas a un Ciudadano


Figueres Ferrer, José, Cartas a un Ciudadano, Costa Rica: Imprenta Nacional, 1956.

Disponible en línea .

José María Hipólito Figueres Ferrer served as President of Costa Rica on three occasions: 1948–1949, 1953–1958 and 1970–1974. During his first term in office he abolished the country's army, nationalized its banking sector, and granted women and blacks the right to vote. He was a good friend of the Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Muñoz Marín, praising his political achievements in one of his essays.

Monday, June 5, 2017

El Movimiento Obrero Latinoamericano


Poblete Troncoso, Moisés, El movimiento obrero latinoamericano, México: Fondo de cultura económica, 1946.(estado deteriorado)

Moisés POBLETE TRONCOSO, Chilean lawyer; Moisés was born on November 15, 1893 in Chillán, Chile; member and representative in Chile, International Labor Office, since 1927; Member Comisión Chilena de Cooperación Intelectual, Institut dc Sociologic (Geneva), American Institute of International Law, Academy, of Polit. Science, American Academy, of Political and Social Science, Unión para la Victoria (president); member Institute del Trabajo in Santa Fé and Córdoba (Argentina), Sito Paulo (Brazil).


Padre de Sergio Poblete Garcés .

El Camino de El Dorado


Úslar Pietri, Arturo, El Camino de El Dorado, Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, S.A., 1947. (en estado deteriorado)

Disponible en línea, (PDF).

Arturo Uslar Pietri (16 May 1906 in Caracas – 26 February 2001) was a Venezuelan intellectual, lawyer, journalist, writer, television producer and politician. (...) Uslar led a remarkably fruitful life, influential in Venezuelan politics, historical analysis and literature, and as an educator. His period of activity spanned the last years of Venezuelan Caudillismo, the transition to democracy and most of the democratic era of 1958 - 1999. He held posts such as Secretary for the Venezuelan Delegation at the League of Nations, delegate at the International Labour Organization, minister of education, minister of finance, contributor to the Act of Constitution of the New Democratic Government (1958), ambassador to the United States of America, professor of Latin American literature at Columbia University, professor of political economics at the Central University of Venezuela, chief editor of a main newspaper, candidate for the Presidency and member of the Royal Spanish Academy.


Arturo Uslar Pietri OL (Caracas, 16 de mayo de 1906-ibídem, 26 de febrero de 2001), fue un polímata: abogado, periodista, escritor, productor de televisión y político venezolano. En su país ha sido considerado como uno de los intelectuales más importantes del siglo XX.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Christian Democracy in Venezuela


Herman, Donald L., Christian Democracy in Venezuela, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1980.

Reviewed in Journal of Latin American Studies © 1981 .

Reviewed in The American Historical Review © 1981 .

See also Ideology, Economic Power and Regional Imperialism: The Determinants of Foreign Policy under Venezuela's Christian Democrats, by Donald L. Herman.

From the cover:
The Christian Democrats and Accion Democratica have retained, and even increased, their political importance in the 1970s. Christian Democracy in Venezuela explains the processes of AD-COPEI opposition and accommodation which have insured a third decade of democracy for this resource-laden and politically important Latin American nation.

The British in the Caribbean


Hamshere, Cyril, The British in the Caribbean, Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1972.

Reviewed in The William and Mary Quarterly © 1974.

Reviewed in The Journal of American History.

Reviewed in Journal of Latin American Studies.

Reviewed in The American Historical Review.

From AbeBooks:
English exploration & colonization of the region, from Drake & Hawkins, colonies in Guyana, Barbados, Caribees; planters & slavers; to nineteenth century emancipations.


Interesting notes from: Nettelbeck, David, A history of Arusha School, Tanzania, 1974:
From 1946 to 1963 under the second major Headmaster (Cyril) Hamshere and a stable senior staff, the school expanded and became an efficient and somewhat impersonal yet vital and living community. (…) In 1961 the country gained its independence, followed in January 1962 by the abolition of separate European, Indian and African education departments. This history is brought to a conclusion in 1969, 7 years after the integrated system of education became effective. During these years, the school returned to semi-Diocesan control under a Board of Governors and became an "international community" feeling its way very hesitantly to a place within independent Tanzania. In 1969, the post-independence Headmaster Bryn Jones left, the last of the British indent staff arrived, and the first of many missionary recruited teachers was employed on terms similar to those of 1934. (…) The first Government appointee as Headmaster was Cyril Hamshere (M.A. Cantab) who was born in East Africa and whose father Archdeacon J.E. Hamshere had been Principal of the Diocesan Training College for pastors and teachers up to his retirement in 1928, when Wynn Jones took over from him. The missionaries who withdrew in 1946 from the staff hoped that through Hamshere, a personal if no longer official link between the Diocese and Government would be retained. (…) Those who worked with him describe Hamshere as an efficient, rather impersonal man who was dominating and demanding with his staff. His nick name was "Old Pomposity" and one of his common greetings was, “I am Mr. Hamshere. I am the Headmaster”. An amusing sidelight on his personality was the bell system he had connected to his study door. When a visitor knocked, a one bell-ring reply meant come in, two rings wait, and three rings go away! (…) For all his strength and gifts, Hamshere was not an educational innovator. Many exciting things went on outside the classroom, but apart from local studies in the social studies curriculum of the lower grades, the impression is of rather formal, academic classroom instruction, with outdated and dull text books, though this may have been typical of his time.

What Happened in Cuba: A Documentary History


Smith, Robert F., What Happened in Cuba: A Documentary History, New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1963.

Reviewed in The Hispanic American Historical Review © 1962.

From the cover:
The object of this fascinating collection of source material is to expose the broad spectrum of United States-Cuban relations by offering pertinent historical documents from the areas of economic, ideological, military, and political interaction. Although this volume is concerned mainly with Cuba, the documents included also give a clear perspective on relations between the United States and the rest of the Latin American area, for United States involvements with the rest of Latin America and with various European nations have influenced United States-Cuban relations.