LIBERATORS OF LATIN AMERICA

by Bob & Jan Young ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 16, 1970

This -- in contrast to Albert Prago's The Revolution in Spanish America (p. 63, J-25) -- is what happens when history is not written by historians: Bolivar does not issue his first great political statement, the Cartagena Manifesto, his Letter from Jamaica appears to be addressed to no one, and the landmark 1826 Congress of Panama is listed among his failures (because only four countries attended); Pedro I of Brazil occasions no distinction between that Portuguese colony and the Spanish colonial matrix heretofore described, and his downfall is attributed to personal indiscretions rather than political failures (e.g. the loss of Uruguay to Argentina). Moreover, in comparing the conquest of Mexico to that of South America, it is said, indefensibly, that ""because of their more advanced civilization,"" the Indians ""had been much more willing to accept Christianity,"" and at no point later is the War of the Reform differentiated from the War of Independence. The failure to define, differentiate, distinguish is endemic along with the failure to perceive and enlarge upon what's important. These several accounts -- neither profiles nor studies -- of Haiti's Toussaint, of San Martin, Bolivar, Pedro, of Mexicans Hidalgo, Morelos, Iturbide and Juarez, and of Cuba's Marti, are not inaccurate so much as unenlightening and, because they're not in the least dramatic either, of limited interest. Besides the Prago, admittedly a rather demanding book, there are other sources superior to this, most particularly, for the Mexicans, Atwater's Out From Under (1969, p. 679, J-273).

Pub Date: Oct. 16, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION