Historia empresarial en América Latina: Temas, debates y problemas is commendable primarily for its transnational scope. Tracing developments in business organization and entrepreneurship across different countries of the American continent south of the US border, the book explores issues of strategy and business form in the long term. Substantial chapters examine how colonial times shaped later business endeavors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, highlighting themes of key local and transnational significance for historians including violence and gender. Undoubtedly, such wide-ranging scholarship will stimulate new research collaborations worldwide in business history, economic history, and beyond.The book fills a long-lasting gap in business history, which, despite gaining international prominence in the 1990s, has lacked a seminal text summarizing the essential themes, organizations, periodizations, and sources that researchers should know when examining the history of enterprises and entrepreneurs in Latin America. Moreover, scholars and instructors of capitalism both in Latin America and globally will benefit from the book's lucid structure, whereby chapters follow the periodization coined by Geoffrey Jones (who also contributes to this edited collection) that is well known among economic and business historians, which outlines transitions from the first era of globalization (from 1840 to 1929) to the second (from the 1980s to the financial crisis of 2008).Part 1 tackles the region's largest nations: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Peru. A common denominator among the chapters is the important role that European immigrants played in the evolution of business; the contributions add significantly to understanding the well-acknowledged fact that this demographic participated as laborers in the history of industrialization. Moreover, the chapters by Aurora Gómez-Galvarriato Freer and Gabriela Recio Cavazos and by Martín Monsalve Zanatti urge readers to go beyond the nineteenth century and include the colonial period as fundamental for any sort of emergent business organization, given that Latin American nations entered a period of international openness after the wars of independence. In addition, alluding to the legacy of the colonial period, Manuel Llorca-Jaña and Rory M. Miller explain how the history of business—in particular, of foreign direct investment—and government relations help explain various economic and social events in the last decade throughout the Southern Cone. In chapters on Colombia (by Carlos Dávila L. de Guevara) and Mexico (by Gómez-Galvarriato Freer and Recio Cavazos), readers learn that the history of globalization and business should be explored through local lenses and experiences, accounting for geographies and politics that shaped how business forms evolved at the national level. Moreover, specific spaces such as the US-Mexican border and the coastline between the Pacific Ocean and Peru (and China, in Monsalve Zanatti's chapter) created unique connections for business endeavors.Chapters on family business (by Paloma Fernández Pérez and Andrea Lluch), business groups in comparison (by María Inés Barbero), and the history of multinationals (by Marcelo Bucheli) contain plentiful examples of companies and business forms, each bringing their own experiences of knowledge, heritage, and business networks unique to doing business in Latin America. Thematic chapters focusing on green business, women, violence, and technology are invaluable for business historians keen to diversify their teaching and research. Indeed, these remain understudied topics within business history. In his contribution, Geoffrey Jones analyzes concepts including ecological distress, exploring the role of business—local and, above all, foreign—in creating a dangerous imbalance in Latin America. He warns of the cruel reality wherein economic growth has, most often, not followed a sustainable, environmentally friendly business model. Additionally, Bernardita Escobar Andrae scrutinizes the limits posed by the legacy of patriarchy in restricting women's leadership in the region—an underdeveloped topic within business history. I add that engaging additional works on Third World feminism by scholars such as Chandra Mohanty, as well as recent developments, a result of the #MeToo movements and fourth-wave feminism, will strengthen evaluations of gender and business in Latin America. Lastly, the volume evaluates all-important sources on so-called illegal business. Sandra Ley and Angelika Rettberg refreshingly move beyond business history's usual sources by showing how to explore the evolution of business in violent contexts through police records, journalistic accounts, and civil and business antiviolence initiatives. Considering the plethora of materials available to historians of Latin American enterprise, surprising examples emerge such as the wheel, which Xavier Durán evaluates to explore how businesses utilized wagons across mountainous regions through the age of air commerce.Historia empresarial en América Latina assesses far more than multilatinas, so in vogue in the present day—though these do receive the attention needed to contextualize their evolution. The rigor and richness of this edited volume generate an unparalleled guide for students of business history, researchers of globalization, and even historians of Latin America unfamiliar with the role of diverse companies and business actors in shaping regional dynamics.
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Open Access
Dec 1, 2022
Angela Hancock 
