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Leftovers: Tales of the Latin American Left Edited by Jorge G. Castañeda and Marco A. Morales Routledge, 2008, English, Softcover, 243 pages
Over the past two decades, Latin America has experienced a dramatic political makeover. In January 1990, just three years before Jorge G. Castañeda published his classic analysis of the post-Cold War Left, Utopia Unarmed, only two Latin American countries had leftist governments: Cuba and Nicaragua. In neither case did the head of state come to power through the ballot box. Today, the electoral map has been turned upside down: almost two-thirds of the continent's population is now governed by democratically elected leftist leaders.
Leftovers: Tales of the Latin American Left reviews and updates the basic tenets and future prognosis for the region's left-wing movements and parties. Castañeda, a New York University professor and former Mexican secretary of foreign affairs, teams up with Marco A. Morales, one of the university's doctoral students, to edit a book that is recommended for well-informed readers as well as a broad professional audience. The two editors and 12 contributing authors go beyond simple explanations to identify concrete patterns and conditions that have led to the surge in left-leaning governments across the region.
Their task was not easy. The rise of the Left has been accompanied by a striking diversification that has produced, what they argue to be, two Lefts that occupy different ends of the political spectrum. One is strident, authoritarian and...