Ben Wright's Reviews > America, América: A New History of the New World

3.5

Shewwww boy, this took me a long time to read, it is simply massive. Very very interesting but massive. I was particularly interested after reading The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity and its idea of schismogenesis (how societies define themselves as separate from other societies) in the New World.

I think Grandin explores this idea (or something close to it) well. His central thesis — that the USA and Latin America owe as much if not more of their development to each other rather than their colonizers — I think is proven true. Then we have their complicated relationships since independence.

Unfortunately he seems to explore everything, sometimes in great depth, sometimes he acknowledges other, more comprehensive books have been written about this topic.

I can understand his dilemma, where do you begin to explain the history of two continents and 10-12 countries? Unfortunately I think this would have been better served by either being two volumes or starting as he intended, with the Monroe Doctrine. The first two thirds(!) of this is very in-depth and very sloggy, but it picks up speed in the modern era — exactly when Grandin starts to elide.

I did learn about many characters that were of course never explored in my education: especially Bartolomé de las Casas, Bolívar and Jorge Gaitán — and their rises and falls in influence and optimism.I also was extremely interested in the dashed dreams of New Deal-like reforms in Latin America, I didn’t realize the international reactionary movement once FDR exited the scene. But those characters and concepts are the bookends; the massive page count in between is hard to swallow.