LATIN AMERICA: MYTH AND REALITY

by Peter Nehemkes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 5, 1964

The reader who has been at all interested in this enormously complex and portentous subject will have trouble judging, from a glance at the title and table of contents here, whether he has already read this book or not. And indeed, there is little in Mr. Nehemkes' volume that has not been said before, as well if not better, for example in The Politics of Change in Latin America (edited by Maier and Weatherhead), or Samuel Shapiro's Invisible Latin America, or Gerald Clark's The coming Explosion in latin America, or Carleton Beals' Latin America: World in Revolution -- to name just four fairly recent volumes, all very different and very worthwhile. It is, as Mr. Nehemkes maintains, high time that myths about Latin America be discarded, and ""many more books will have to written...before this task can be completed."" What is most discouraging is that most writers seem to begin, and end, at pretty nearly the same points as their predecessors. This author's message is addressed mainly to businessmen. He proposes ""Consortia""made up of private countries ""from many nations,"" led by the President of the .S., and assured of ""direct access"" to him; this would supposedly mobilize the ""collective resources of the private economy,"" help Latin Americans to help themselves, and defeat t he spectre of Communism. As a Chinese proverb says- Better light a candle than curse the darkness. The question is, though is this the right end of the right candle? And the author doesn't tell you who's got the match.

Pub Date: Oct. 5, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION