Recent Works on U.S.–Latin American Relations

Abstract

Recent Works on U.S.–Latin American Relations Gregory Weeks (bio) Borders and Bridges: A History of U.S.–Latin American Relations. By Stewart Brewer. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2006. Pp. 197. $49.95 cloth. Neighborly Adversaries: Readings in U.S.–Latin American Relations, 2nd ed. Edited by Michael LaRosa and Frank O. Mora. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007. Pp. 371. $29.95 paper. Addicted to Failure: U.S. Security Policy in Latin America and the Andean Region. Edited by Brian Loveman. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006. Pp. 367. $27.95 paper. Intimate Ties, Bitter Struggles: The United States and Latin America since 1945. By Alan McPherson. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2006. Pp. 208. $45.00 cloth. Anti-Americanism in Latin America and the Caribbean. Edited by Alan McPherson. New York: Berghahn Books, 2006. Pp. 301. $85.00 cloth. Making the Americas: The United States and Latin America from the Age of Revolutions to the Era of Globalization. By Thomas F. O'Brien. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007. Pp. 390. $24.95 paper. U.S. Relations with Latin America during the Clinton Years: Opportunities Lost or Opportunities Squandered? By David Scott Palmer. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006. Pp. 125. $24.95 paper. [End Page 247] Imágenes de un imperio: Estados Unidos y las formas de representación de América Latina. By Ricardo D. Salvatore. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 2006. Pp. 191. There have, of course, been countless books on different aspects of U.S.– Latin American relations, especially after the Cuban Revolution increased U.S. governmental and scholarly attention to the region. Long gone are the days when the subject was dominated by U.S.-centric diplomatic historians like Samuel Flagg Bemis, whose influential text The Latin American Policy of the United States (excerpted in LaRosa and Mora) is almost painful to read for its paternalistic bent, particularly in its positive view of U.S. imperialism.1 Instead, the books under review here demonstrate how the study of U.S.–Latin American relations in the post–Cold War era has grown very diverse. It is, therefore, no easy task to tie together all the many threads of the topic, given the number of disciplinary and historical perspectives, the various audiences, and the aspirations of different analyses. Nevertheless, some things do not change much. In a book review essay published in Latin American Research Review in 1992, immediately after the end of the Cold War, Alyson Brysk wrote that the books that she examined "do not address each other directly and to a certain extent are aimed at different audiences."2 This is also the case with the publications now under review. We can, however, identify four distinct but intertwined goals set out in these books. First, there is the effort to characterize and summarize U.S. policy and its impact on, and response from, Latin America. Second, the authors seek to judge U.S. policy, especially in relation to its stated goals. Third, most of the authors analyze Latin America's reaction to U.S. policy. Fourth, a number of the books have an explicit pedagogical angle, while others could also easily be incorporated as class readings. For this, I will conclude by discussing how these publications could contribute collectively to theory building. The topic of U.S.–Latin American relations as a whole is unique because it has a wider undergraduate audience than many others; many universities and colleges teach it along with a general course on Latin American politics. Therefore, in addition to (or in conjunction with) theoretical and conceptual treatments, there is a steady stream of books aimed at the non-expert. Given the national debate in the United States on immigration, the rhetoric aimed at the Cuban and Venezuelan governments (including whether to talk to them at all), the continued flow of drugs and the associated [End Page 248] violence, and the discourse on free-trade agreements, just to name a few of the most prominent issues, there is a need for books intended for students at both the graduate level and the undergraduate level. One encouraging point is that the quality of writing in many of these...