"Voices from the South: Bolivian, Brazilian, and Cuban Sources for Scholars and the Public".

• Author: Rothera, Evan C.

"Voices from the South: Bolivian, Brazilian, and Cuban Sources for Scholars and the Public"

EVAN C. ROTHERA

University of Arkansas, Fort Smith

Thomson, Sinclair, Rossana Barragan, Xavier Albo, Seemin Qayum, and Mark Goodale, eds. The Bolivia Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018.

Green, James N., Victoria Langland, and Lilia Mortiz Schwarcz, The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Second Edition. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019.

Chomsky, Aviva et al. The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Second Edition. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019.

Duke University Press's Latin America Readers aspire to present, as the series description explains, a deep human view of Latin America's many faces. The books accomplish this by assembling an array of primary and secondary sources about a specific country. Many of these sources have been translated into English for the first time. The three volumes covered in this review--The Bolivia Reader, The Brazil Reader, and The Cuba Reader--succeed in illuminating the different human faces of the countries they analyze. In addition, they offer documents that will prove useful in secondary school classes as well as in college and university classrooms. The volumes also provide a thorough grounding in the complex history, culture, and politics of each nation as well as suggest ideas about possible topics for further research.

Sinclair Thomson, Rossana Barragan, Xavier Albo, Seemin Qayum, and Mark Goodale's The Bolivia Reader offers a fascinating collection of sources that successfully introduces scholars and lay readers to Bolivian history. As the editor's note in the introduction, "The land we call 'Bolivia today has long elicited contrasting visions of history, territory, society, and the future. Despite the steady rhythms of everyday life, public affairs frequently reveal oscillating moods and clashing perspectives, notes of fatalism and triumphalism, even apocalyptic and utopian expectations" (1). Clashing views over class, ethnic, and geographic divisions (not to mention recurrent periods of crisis and transformation) have all influenced Bolivian history, culture, and politics. Although often ignored or overlooked in histories of South America, the editors make a compelling argument for the need to spend more time analyzing Bolivia.

Space constraints preclude a full discussion of this volume's contents. However, as with the other volumes, The...