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Title: Children of Cain: Violence and the Violent in Latin America by Tina Rosenberg ISBN: 0-14-017254-8 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Outstanding effort
Comment: This is the second book by Tina Rosenberg I have read. The first one was Haunted Land about Eastern Europe after the fall of communism, which I also highly recommend. I'm so pleased with Rosenberg's style that I'm after her book on South Africa as well.
For almost a decade Rosenberg traveled through Latin America not shying away from really messy situations trying to make sense of a history of violence and very little respect for human rights. Tina experienced many of the situations herself such as being soaked with diluted acid by the police in the streets of Santiago, Chile, during marches against Pinochet or taking a nightmarish truck bed trip through guerrilla infested Peru. The Latin American economic, political and military elites also had their points of view captured by Rosenberg resulting, as far as I can tell, in a very well balanced collection of personal perspectives on the problem - violence in Latin America - intermingled with background historical information.
Rosenberg is very competent in summarizing the recent history and the roots of violence in Latin America. The author brings the historical review to life by interviewing perpetrators and victims. Violence in Latin America as viewed by Rosenberg emanates from a history of inequality. The native populations and the unwillingly imported black slaves and their descendants have been for five centuries exploited and victimized by greedy white Europeans. The resulting instable societies in turn fall prey of guerrilla groups, organized crime, drug lords, or the old fashioned military economic and political elites. The victimized population looses faith in the state and became passive or takes matters on their own hands solving social problems or even threatening or overthrowing governments. To tip the balance back the oligarchies can inevitably count on the CIA for supposedly counter insurgency help.
It's a chilling book with no solution on sight and Rosenberg didn't even include some remarkable facets of violence in Latin America such as domestic violence in a notably sexist society and the petit and not so petit common crime. Colombia is the first market worldwide for bulletproof cars - Brazil is the second.
It's an important book mainly for American readers since it shows the impact of American interference. Sadly it offers no solution - maybe there isn't.
Leonardo Alves - Tucson, Arizona - June 2002
Rating: 5
Summary: Thorough, brilliant and terrifying.
Comment: This is the best book on Latin America I've ever read--it is extremely accessible for people who know nothing about Latin America, and for those who do, it is a major contribution to our understanding of the region. Rosenberg's vinnettes and explanations of the violence seemingly endemic to Latin America are brilliantly written and compelling. She captures the essense of the countries she writes about, and deftly explains their histories so that we understand the reasons for the violence. We can no longer just hear about the violence plaging Latin America and see it as irrational, wondering where it came from. Wonderful portraits of the perpetrators of violence, marking Rosenberg as different from the throngs of writers--journalists and others--who have focused on the victims of violence, on the corpses and grewsome stories. More attention needs to be given to the perpetrators and also those who live with such violence, who watch it and become numb to it, including ourselves. A major contribution to Latin American studies and the study of violence.
Rating: 5
Summary: Powerful, Brilliant
Comment: I'm so glad someone recommended this book to me because I will never forget it, It's wonderful insight into latin America and it's societies. Great interviews and vivid desriptions of life in a place where life means so little to so many people.
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Title: Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America by John Charles Chasteen ISBN: 0393976130 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $40.15 |
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Title: The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism by Tina Rosenberg ISBN: 0679744991 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria De Jesus by Carolina Maria De Jesus ISBN: 0451627318 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 August, 1983 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: A History of Latin America: Independence to the Present by Benjamin Keen ISBN: 0618318534 Publisher: Not Avail Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $41.16 |
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Title: Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America by Alma Guillermoprieto ISBN: 0375725822 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 12 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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