Peter Winn is Professor of Latin American History and Director of Latin American Studies at Tufts University and a senior research associate at Columbia University's Institute of Latin American Studies. He was academic director of the PBS series Americas: Latin America and the Caribbean, for which the first edition of this book was a companion volume.

Preface to the 1999 Edition
Preface
1 .A View from the South 3
2. Legacies of Empire 33
3. The Perils of Progress 84
4. A Second Independence? 120
5. Capital Sins 155
6. Continent on the Move 200
7. Children of the Sun 234
8. A Question of Color 271
9. In Women's Hands 307
10. The Power and the Glory 346
11. The Magical and the Real 394
12. Endangered States 442
13. Making Revolution 492
14. North of the Border 550
Epilogue: Latin America and the Caribbean at 2000 601
Notes 609
Illustration Credits 621
Index 625

Written to accompany a television series and college telecourse to be broadcast on PBS this January, Americas is a fairly frantic jump from high spot to high spot through the history to date of Latin America and the Caribbean. Winn, a professor of history at Tufts and the academic director of the series, offers analyses of, among other subjects, the role of women, the influence of the Catholic church, the growing power of the evangelical and spiritualist sects, the three important Latin American revolutions (Mexico in the 1910s, Cuba in 1959, and Nicaragua in 1970), Argentina during the Peron era, and the changing role of indigenous people. The final effect of these essays is a remarkably readable overview of the similarities and differences among the 33 Latin American countries, including the United States and its Hispanic population. Recommended for all public and secondary school libraries and junior colleges.