The seven chapters of this book, all originally published between 1992 and 1999, range from biography to international relations, from electoral analysis to bibliography to film. Five were published in the UK, three of those as occasional papers of the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of London. This addition to the series coedited by Dunkerley thus makes some interesting material conveniently available to a broader readership.Dunkerley’s long-standing interest in Bolivia underpins three of the essays. “The Third Man: Francisco Burdett O’Connor and the Emancipation of the Americas” narrates the story of a member of a well-to-do, politically active Irish family who joined Bolívar in 1819 and fought as an officer in the battles of Junín and Ayacucho that ended Spanish power in South America. He then settled in southern Bolivia where he started a family that remains prominent; he died in 1871 having made such a mark that a province of the Department of Tarija bears his name. Dunkerley extracts from O’Connor’s diaries interesting insights into the logistics of the Peruvian campaign and details of life in postindependence Bolivia that challenge the standard image of a country immersed in constant turmoil.“Barrientos and Debray: All Gone or More to Come?” traces the lives of the Bolivian general/president and the French philosopher/journalist, “the principal surviving protagonists” (p. 2) of Che Guevara’s 1967 guerrilla campaign (though Barrientos lastcd only 18 months after Che’s death). The bigger question about these lives, framed by Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man (1992), is whether the likes of Barrientos and Debray, the warrior and the radical scribe, may have any significant role to play in the era of neoliberal economics and formal democracy. Among the possible challengers of the new order, Dunkerley cites Hugo Chávez, at that time a failed coup leader, and Abimael Guzmán of the Sendero Luminoso. While the Sendero has effectively passed from the scene, as Guzmán languishes in prison, we have heard much more of Chávez, not a little about Subcomandante Marcos, and not the last from the FARC, to name but a few of today’s obstacles to the ineluctable march of progress.In “The 1997 Bolivian Election in Historical Perspective,” Dunkerley combines a close analysis of the contest that returned former dictator (1971–78) and Plan Cóndor collaborator Hugo Banzer to the presidency with a review of Bolivian politics since the 1952 revolution. Supported by extensive tables on elections since 1951, this chapter offers a succinct primer on half a century of Bolivia’s political history. Addressing the seeming folly of electing a tyrant-cum-democrat, Dunkerley explores both the man and the Bolivian political system, concluding that Bolivia is “a political society at least as mature in its calculations as some supposedly more sophisticated electorates” (p. 69). His assessment of contemporary Bolivia suggests that despite the historic failure of democracy to germinate in the country’s hard soil and the exacerbation of economic problems, Bolivia’s political transition since 1985 has been solid.Dunkerley’s experience as an administrator, editor, and veteran academic gives “The Study of Latin American History and Politics in the United Kingdom: An Interpretive Sketch” the patina of authority. He unearths the works of virtually every historian and political scientist working on Latin America in the UK as well as the publications of British expatriates and foreigners who studied in Britain, producing a comprehensive reference work. More than a dry recounting of publications by discipline and theme, this is a breezy insider’s look at thirty years (1965–95) of scholarly production in context. He discusses trends in higher education, universities, departments, programs, journals, presses, professors and their students, successful and ordinary careers, even the possibilities of transatlantic travel for research. He does not refrain from gentle iconoclasm: the work of Hugh Thomas “has ranged from Spain to Cuba to Mexico (with an occasional intermezzo on the world as a whole) and is no less characterized by the length of the studies than by the controversy they spark” (p. 100).The remaining three chapters require little comment. In “All That Trouble Down There: Hollywood and Central America,” Dunkerley assesses U.S. films on the Central American crisis, labeling the bulk of them “rank tat” (p. 76). “Beyond Utopia: The State of the Left in Latin America,” a review essay on Jorge Castaneda’s 1993 book on the post-cold war Left, is interesting at this point as a reminder of the provenance of Vicente Fox’s foreign secretary. “The United States and Latin America in the Long Run (1800–1945),” is a chapter from V. Bulmer-Thomas and Dunkerley, eds., The United States and Latin America: The New Agenda (1999). This book confirms the breadth of Dunkerley’s expertise and the value of his scholarship while offering in a single volume a series of essays that merit greater exposure than most have had.