David Smith

Out of date, in many respects

Revisado: 07-11-21

Note, above all, that the release date on the Audible recording is misleading - this book was published in 1963. It’s also important to note that the author was a British professor, and although he was clearly knowledgeable, his text suffers from many of the flaws of the English (and US) scholarship of that time about non-European history and cultures. His sources are primarily English-language, which is baffling given the vast scholarship over hundreds of years available in Spanish and Portuguese. He gives a surprising amount of space to the influence of the UK on Latin American history, given that she was at best a bit player on the scene for the most part. He indulges in sweeping generalizations about the characteristics (as he sees them) of whole peoples, although to his credit he does so with clear attempts compassion and appreciation - the condescension is apparent, but it’s not as blatant as some. But the biggest flaws in the work are inherent in the approach - trying to summarize, in one volume, the diverse histories of two continents in a single, not-very-large volume, including a gloss of the pre-European history of the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas. Pendle did an admirable job at this task, all things considered, but the flaws in the project itself are hard to ignore.

The recording is well done and the narrator is solid, although it is sometimes obvious that he is not fluent in either Spanish or Portuguese. Certain words, names, terms, and places are mispronounced. (E.g., each time he mentioned Oaxaca, he pronounced it differently.) Ideally, it would be wonderful if a work on Latin America would include the actual sounds and words of that diverse land.

Overall, I found this somewhat useful as a starting point for further research and reading, especially given that there are relatively few audiobook alternatives available in English, either as original works or in translation. But I wish that gap would be addressed.

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