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Latin America: Politics and Society since1930. Edited by LESLiE BETHELL. Cambridge History of Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Tables. Figures. Bibliographical essays. Index. vii, 489 pp. Cloth, $59.95 Paper, $21.95. For the second part of volume 6 of this authoritative series, Leslie Bethell has assembled a stellar international cast of authors. He has given them the daunting assignment of surveying vast aspects of the hemisphere's political history from the t93os to the t99os. There is also some attention to social history, but the chapters on social movements focus on their political manifestations more than their social roots. The contributors rise to the challenge with a high standard of scholarship and exposition, accompanied by masterful bibliographical essays. The resulting anthology would make a superb selection for an advanced undergraduate survey or a graduate seminar.
Most of the chapters are stronger on narrative than on interpretation, a rather curious outcome, since none of the authors is a historian. In part, this emphasis on empirical complexities rather than theoretical similarities may reflect different styles of social science. The North Americans and Latin Americans lean more toward concepts and generalizations, while the Europeans tilt toward descriptions of...