Brazil
Emília Viotti da Costa, The Brazilian Empire: Myths and Histories (1985; originally published in Portuguese, 1977), collects well-written essays on liberalism, slavery, the end of the empire, and other major topics. C.H. Haring, Empire in Brazil: A New World Experiment with Monarchy (1958, reissued 1968), is a somewhat dated but still useful political history. Warren Dean, Rio Claro: A Brazilian Plantation System, 1820–1920 (1976), examines changing labour arrangements during the growth and demise of slavery. João José Reis, Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia (1993; originally published in Portuguese, 1986), weighs African cultural contributions and other factors in analyzing one of the century’s most influential revolts. Stanley J. Stein, Vassouras: A Brazilian Coffee County, 1850–1900: The Roles of Planter and Slave in a Plantation Society (1985), studies the rise and decline of a traditional coffee zone. Linda Lewin, Politics and Parentela in Paraíba: A Case Study of Family-Based Oligarchy in Brazil (1987), analyzes in detail the patronage system that defined politics in late 19th- and early 20th-century Brazil; and Richard Graham, Patronage and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Brazil (1990), does the same, specifically for the empire period. Joseph L. Love, Rio Grande do Sul and Brazilian Regionalism, 1882–1930 (1971), presents a strong regional history of politics. Thomas H. Holloway, Immigrants on the Land: Coffee and Society in São Paulo, 1886–1934 (1980), analyzes how two million European immigrants worked and lived.
Twentieth-century Latin America
General works
Thomas E. Skidmore and Peter H. Smith, Modern Latin America, 4th ed. (1997); and Peter Calvert and Susan Calvert, Latin America in the Twentieth Century, 2nd ed. (1993), are good introductions to the period.
Political developments
Now somewhat dated in interpretation but extremely influential when it appeared is John J. Johnson, Political Change in Latin America: The Emergence of the Middle Sectors (1958, reissued 1965). Treatments of political topics that cross national boundaries include A.E. Van Niekerk, Populism and Political Development in Latin America (1974; originally published in Dutch, 1972); Edward J. Williams, Latin American Christian Democratic Parties (1967); and John A. Peeler, Latin American Democracies: Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela (1985), assessing variants of liberal democracy. The impact of the Cuban Revolution and associated leftist currents is explored in Jorge G. Castañeda, Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left After the Cold War (1993), by a frustrated sympathizer; and William E. Ratliff, Castroism and Communism in Latin America, 1959–1976: The Varieties of Marxist-Leninist Experience (1976), a conservative perspective. Frederick M. Nunn, The Time of the Generals: Latin American Professional Militarism in World Perspective (1992); and J. Samuel Fitch, The Armed Forces and Democracy in Latin America (1998), discuss the political role of the military. Sandra M. Deutsch, Las Derechas: The Extreme Right in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, 1890–1939 (1999), examines an important part of the political spectrum often neglected by scholars. Ronald M. Schneider, Latin American Political History: Patterns and Personalities (2007), details Latin America’s struggles to establish viable participatory political systems.
Economics
Victor Bulmer-Thomas, The Economic History of Latin America Since Independence (1994), provides the best overall treatment. Labour issues are examined in Hobart A. Spalding, Jr., Organized Labor in Latin America: Historical Case Studies of Workers in Dependent Societies (1977), a helpful introduction; and Charles Bergquist, Labor in Latin America: Comparative Essays on Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, and Colombia (1986). William C. Thiesenhusen, Broken Promises: Agrarian Reform and the Latin American Campesino (1995), covers the rise and fall of agrarian reformism. The essays in Paul W. Drake (ed.), Money Doctors, Foreign Debts, and Economic Reforms in Latin America from the 1890s to the Present (1993), deal with varied aspects of economic policy. Ronn Pineo and James A. Baer, Cities of Hope: People, Protests, and Progress in Urbanizing Latin America, 1870–1930 (1998), surveys the urbanization process.
International relations
Bill Albert and Paul Henderson, South America and the First World War: The Impact of the War on Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Chile (1988); and R.A. Humphreys, Latin America and the Second World War, 2 vol. (1981–82), examine the repercussions of foreign conflicts. Good examples from the vast literature examining the role of the United States are Bryce Wood, The Dismantling of the Good Neighbor Policy (1985), covering a broad spectrum of 20th-century issues; Lester D. Langley, The United States and the Caribbean in the Twentieth Century, 4th ed. (1989), treating a critically important theatre; Barbara Stallings, Banker to the Third World: U.S. Portfolio Investment in Latin America, 1900–1986 (1987); and Fredrick B. Pike, FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy: Sixty Years of Generally Gentle Chaos (1995).
Culture and society
Jean Franco, The Modern Culture of Latin America: Society and the Artist, rev. ed. (1970), covers cultural history. Francesca Miller, Latin American Women and the Search for Social Justice (1991), discusses the changing role of women and women’s movements. David Stoll, Is Latin America Turning Protestant? The Politics of Evangelical Growth (1990); and David Lehmann, Struggle for the Spirit: Religious Transformation and Popular Culture in Brazil and Latin America (1996), treat the rise of Protestantism and, less directly, changes in the Roman Catholic Church. David Bushnell