Latin America and the United States: A Documentary History - Softcover

Robert H. Holden is Professor of History at Old Dominion University. He is the author of Armies without Nations (OUP, 2004) and Mexico and the Survey of Public Lands (1994).

Eric Zolov is Associate Professor of History at Franklin and Marshall College. He is the author of Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture (1999) and coeditor of Fragments of a Golden Age: The Politics of Culture in Mexico Since 1940 (2001) and Rockin' Las Amricas: The Global Politics of Rock in Latin/o America (2004).

"This is an extraordinarily good documentary reader. It enriches the study of US relations with Latin America by including the otherwise silenced voices of Latin Americans, whose frequently conflicting agendas routinely have produced negotiations that limited US objectives in significant ways, without really threatening its hemispheric hegemony."
- Keith Haynes, College of Saint Rose, will adopt.

"This is an excellent work; the text is highly valuable for history courses. The main strengths are the accessibility of the readings, the diversity of the readings (especially in the latter two sections), and the relevance of the readings (esp. in latter two sections)EL The documents also reflect Latin American viewpoints of the US, not just US views of Latin America. The text also goes beyond the standard emphasis on diplomatic historyEL So much has changed politically, socially and economically in US/Latin American relations since the last edition, that updates are definitely needed. The premise of the book (providing students with access to English-language primary documents), however, remains needed and relevant, making this sort of text worthwhile." - Jaymie Heilman, Dalhousie University, may adopt.

"Far and away, this is the most comprehensive documentary reader on the history of U.S.-Latin American relations. Teaching that course this past summer, I assigned a large majority of the documents in this collection, and for the Cold War & post-Cold War period of the class, where my main textbook (see above) proved inadequate, the documents provided the bulk of our reading from that point onwardsEL This remains the definitive primary source reader on U.S.-Latin American relations." - Ian Lekus, Tufts University, will adopt.

"This remains the definitive primary source reader on U.S.-Latin American relations. I think it's the best collection of documents on the market today: comprehensive, well contextualized, and containing both U.S. and Latin American voices. Its strengths are the broad coverage it offers of political, economic, military, and cultural developments; its wealth of Latin American documents; its particular attention to cultural sources such as songs and poetry; the short length of its selections; and its presentations of documents, which are short enough but give enough context." - Alan McPherson, Howard University, likely to adopt.

"This text is fairly unique in terms of the books I have examined for this course... I think a new edition would be extremely useful because this texts demonstrate that there are many important, yet scattered, sources to aid students in gaining a greater understanding of how people were thinking at the time of the events. Most of the documents are revealing and compelling and very useful for teaching and/or as a starting point for student research." - Charles Beatty Medina, University of Toledo, likely to adopt.

"The Holden & Zolov documentary history offers a comprehensive chronological listing of the major documents, statements, and both US & LA perspectives, presented in brief edited form and with a short introduction to each that puts the item into its specific historical context. There is appropriate material for both history and IR/political science courses for selection by individual instructors." - David Scott Palmer, Boston University, will adopt.

"Its strength is the breadth of selections; I like an interdisciplinary approach, and the wide variety of sources included here allows this. The arrangement of selections into historical periods also mirrors my own organization of the historical part of the class, so reading assignments flow very well with the advancement of the classEL Suitable price and well-chosen material, the brief introductions provide excellent context for each selection." - Dwight Wilson, University of Georgia, will adopt.

"This is a superb collection of material covering nearly 200 years, with succinct introductions that put each document in context. It is especially excellent on the past century as Latin American as well as U.S. views and policies are given attention, and cultural figures such as Jack Kerouac, Ariel Dorfman, and C. Wright Mills have their say along with such obvious (and different) suspects as Theodore Roosevelt, Nelson Rockefeller, and Ronald Reagan."--Walter LaFeber, Cornell University

"Latin America and the United States is a thoughtfully conceived and up-to-date collection that offers documentary insight on political, economic, cultural, and social dimensions of inter-American relations. Particularly welcome is the inclusion of Latin American viewpoints. This volume will be an extremely valuable teaching tool for courses on Latin America, U.S. diplomatic history, U.S. foreign policy, and U.S.-Latin American relations."--Peter H. Smith, University of California, San Diego