crestun's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Could never give a book this thoroughly researched, with this depth of prose and such a clear emphasis on predictability anything less than the 5 stars it earned. Even when it gets heavy and statistic and figure centric, you never want to stop reading because the stories it tells are so glossed over by mainstream historical narratives. This is the only book that can do what it did as effectively as it did, and I think it should be praised for that. Also was able to annotate hella quotes in this one, very effective in looking back on. Structure was likewise chronological and thematic, which made quite long chapters feel conquerable when cut down to multiples smaller sections. Overall, certainly a must-read. For everyone.
mdion1993's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
A critical overview of Latin America’s history, and the foreign interference that has negatively impacted its development.
NOTE: No review because, like The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying, this book is meant to spark discussion and for the reader to derive their own meaning.
Dense ✨ Economics ✨ Socialist
NOTE: No review because, like The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying, this book is meant to spark discussion and for the reader to derive their own meaning.
Dense ✨ Economics ✨ Socialist
bjaimes's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Wowee this book is an impressive accomplishment. I don’t know if any other authors/historians could have covered so much ground in under 300 pages.
Apart from standard descriptions of Latin American colonialism and plunder, Galeano really shines in the later sections on neocolonialism. If you didn’t already hate the IMF, you will find no shortage of reasons to hate them here! I also particularly liked that Galeano did not shy away from describing the loopholes and mechanisms that the Western bourgeoisie use to exploit Latin America. It’s essential we understand that US hegemony is not solely enforced through hard conflict, but also through waging soft warfare through economic policy.
Galeano does all of this with a writing style that flows seamlessly from one idea to the next! Despite the book mainly being about political economy, it maintains its readability and accessibility throughout. There are also an abundance of short, poetic phrases woven into the text that i love, for example:
“‘Aid’ works like the philanthropist who put a wooden leg on his piglet because he was eating it bit by bit”
This is a great timeline of Latin America for anyone who wants to understand the history of its economic subjugation. Although Galeano doesn’t prescribe solutions, it seems he advocates for revolution in one way or another! It leaves me with the following questions:
- What is our duty as Americans living within the belly of the beast?
- Can Latin America ever be free without the dismantling of western imperialism? (Probably not lol)
dejnozkova's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Took me a while to get through this one because it’s kinda dense if you don’t have a background in economics. HOWEVER, Galeano’s talent for journalistic writing does make it a bit easier for the average person to follow the complexities of Latin America’s economic history, so honestly anyone CAN grasp the material if they give themselves the time.
It’s easy for a lot of us to say “well the global south is fucked because of the west” and yes quite a bit of that is true. But this book tells you precisely how Latin America has become to be the way that it is, detailing not only the imperialist and colonialist history we might all be familiar with, but also divulging the corruption of Latin American aristocracy and government, and the carefully strategized takeovers of Latin American industry by foreign capitalists. It’s easy to paint over every issue with a paintbrush statement, but Open Veins exposes how ridiculously insidious, pervasive, and INTENTIONAL economic exploitation really is; that power imbalance, poverty, monopolies, corruption, etc are not mere accidents or side-effects, but occur by design of players the average person is unaware of.
This book does truly carry over into today, as Galeano’s descriptions and predictions for the political and economic state of the region can continue to be observed even now. This book focuses on Latin America but it contributes to a global conversation regarding socioeconomic inequalities born from capitalism, and the fate of “underdeveloped”/“developing” countries as a whole.
It’s easy for a lot of us to say “well the global south is fucked because of the west” and yes quite a bit of that is true. But this book tells you precisely how Latin America has become to be the way that it is, detailing not only the imperialist and colonialist history we might all be familiar with, but also divulging the corruption of Latin American aristocracy and government, and the carefully strategized takeovers of Latin American industry by foreign capitalists. It’s easy to paint over every issue with a paintbrush statement, but Open Veins exposes how ridiculously insidious, pervasive, and INTENTIONAL economic exploitation really is; that power imbalance, poverty, monopolies, corruption, etc are not mere accidents or side-effects, but occur by design of players the average person is unaware of.
This book does truly carry over into today, as Galeano’s descriptions and predictions for the political and economic state of the region can continue to be observed even now. This book focuses on Latin America but it contributes to a global conversation regarding socioeconomic inequalities born from capitalism, and the fate of “underdeveloped”/“developing” countries as a whole.
crystal_reading's review against another edition
4.0
When I scrolled down to tag the bookshelves for this one, several seemed to fit though this isn't fiction like the other books on those shelves. The ones that caught my eye were bullying, disturbing, horror, monsters, and survival. When I was reading the first section of the book, I told someone it was like reading a dystopian novel. It is difficult to believe the inhumanity to man in dystopian novels, but this was actual history. It was not an easy book to read at all for more reasons than one. First, the horrifying events over the many years is difficult to absorb. Second, the economics and politics were actually hard for my brain to process. It is simply so complicated and full of conniving and slipping through loopholes that my brain was barely keeping up with the political dance.
I am glad that I was able to see this perspective though. It really helps me understand some of the things that are happening now in our country and in the rest of the world.
I am glad that I was able to see this perspective though. It really helps me understand some of the things that are happening now in our country and in the rest of the world.
woolfen's review against another edition
5.0
5 stars.
This book is dense - Galeano writes a novel but is nothing but efficient. 'Underdevelopment isn’t a stage of development, but its consequence.'
Deployment of statistics and sketches of horror fill every page - rationally and emotionally you swallow this account of Latin America and feel ill. I hate to be a caricature but my jaw dropped about 20 pages in - I was sat alone reading in bed. The horror of colonialism, and the extended and drawn out permutations it goes through are visceral: the account of Potosí really seared itself into my mind. The 'hollowing' of its hill in the name of silver, the spending of human life is a microcosm in this book - every resource, every account is like that - and it's true all over the world where colonialism has had its way: the DRC, SA, Ghana, Mali, etc.
"The task lies in the hands of the dispossessed, the humiliated, the accursed. The Latin American cause is above all a social cause: the rebirth of Latin America must start with the overthrow of its masters, country by country. We are entering times of rebellion and change. There are those who believe that destiny rests on the knees of the gods; but the truth is that it confronts the conscience of man with a burning challenge." p261
When we are shown that the structures of the world are so clearly evinced from exploitation - then we should look at the structures that facilitate it. "There is nothing more orderly than a graveyard [but] every act of destruction meets its response, sooner or later, in an act of creation."
This book is dense - Galeano writes a novel but is nothing but efficient. 'Underdevelopment isn’t a stage of development, but its consequence.'
Deployment of statistics and sketches of horror fill every page - rationally and emotionally you swallow this account of Latin America and feel ill. I hate to be a caricature but my jaw dropped about 20 pages in - I was sat alone reading in bed. The horror of colonialism, and the extended and drawn out permutations it goes through are visceral: the account of Potosí really seared itself into my mind. The 'hollowing' of its hill in the name of silver, the spending of human life is a microcosm in this book - every resource, every account is like that - and it's true all over the world where colonialism has had its way: the DRC, SA, Ghana, Mali, etc.
"The task lies in the hands of the dispossessed, the humiliated, the accursed. The Latin American cause is above all a social cause: the rebirth of Latin America must start with the overthrow of its masters, country by country. We are entering times of rebellion and change. There are those who believe that destiny rests on the knees of the gods; but the truth is that it confronts the conscience of man with a burning challenge." p261
When we are shown that the structures of the world are so clearly evinced from exploitation - then we should look at the structures that facilitate it. "There is nothing more orderly than a graveyard [but] every act of destruction meets its response, sooner or later, in an act of creation."