John Charles Chasteen Livres

Adopted at over 450 colleges and universities in its First Edition, Born in Blood and Fire has quickly become the standard survey history of Latin America.

To solve the problems of the twenty-first century, historian John Charles Chasteen argues that we must first know our shared human story

The global history of marijuana is intricately woven with its role as one of the first domesticated plants, highlighting a rich heritage often overlooked. Noted historian John Chasteen delves into its vibrant spiritual significance, revealing that its use as a recreational drug has been infrequent. Through captivating insights, the book uncovers the multifaceted dimensions of marijuana's historical journey, emphasizing its cultural and spiritual importance throughout the ages.

How did the nationalisms of Latin America's many countries—elaborated in everything from history and fiction to cookery—arise from their common backgrounds in the Spanish and Portuguese empires and their similar populations of mixed European, native, and African origins? Beyond Imagined Communities: Reading and Writing the Nation in Nineteenth-Century Latin America , discards one answer and provides a rich collection of others. These essays began as a critique of the argument by Benedict Anderson's highly influential book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism . Anderson traces Latin American nationalisms to local circulation of colonial newspapers and tours of duty of colonial administrators, but this book shows the limited validity of these arguments. Instead, Beyond Imagined Communities shows how more diverse cultural influences shaped Latin American nationalisms. Four historians examine social situations: François-Xavier Guerra studies various forms of political communication; Tulio Halperín Donghi, political parties; Sarah C. Chambers, the feminine world of salons; and Andrew Kirkendall, the institutions of higher education that trained the new administrators. Next, four critics examine production of cultural objects: Fernando Unzueta investigates novels; Sara Castro-Klarén, archeology and folklore; Gustavo Verdesio, suppression of unwanted archeological evidence; and Beatriz González Stephan, national literary histories and international expositions.