Modern Latin America, 1800-Present

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the concrete actors and events that have shaped politics, culture, and society in Latin America from the nineteenth century wars of independence to the present. Through scholarly readings, primary source documents, literature, music, and film, we will explore the imprint of Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule, the struggles to consolidate nation-states, the efforts to "modernize" in the late nineteenth century, and the extremes that Latin America experienced during the twentieth century. Among the varied topics to be explored in detail will be labor and slavery, citizenship, changing gender roles, urbanization, mass politics and social revolution, and transitions from dictatorship to democracy. The course will also include a consideration of Latin America's changing relationship with the outside world, and particularly with its powerful neighbor to the north. Previously HIST 2289.