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tictactoney's review against another edition
informative
5.0
I got a litttttlle lost in the latter half, but still giving it 5 stars because this book is so dam important. I want everyone to read this. I want to leave a copy of this in everyone's house.
Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone, also by Galeano, is probably ranked in my top favorite books of all time. Open Veins is much more textbook-y, but still compulsively readable and mostly approachable. Eduardo Galeano is, in my very humble opinion, one of the best minds our world has seen. And the lessons he has to share in Open Veins and in Mirrors are important.
"Latin American underdevelopment is not a stage on the road to development, but the counterpart to development elsewhere."
"In these lands we are not experiencing the primitive infancy of capitalism but its vicious senility."
Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone, also by Galeano, is probably ranked in my top favorite books of all time. Open Veins is much more textbook-y, but still compulsively readable and mostly approachable. Eduardo Galeano is, in my very humble opinion, one of the best minds our world has seen. And the lessons he has to share in Open Veins and in Mirrors are important.
"Latin American underdevelopment is not a stage on the road to development, but the counterpart to development elsewhere."
"In these lands we are not experiencing the primitive infancy of capitalism but its vicious senility."
fbrady's review against another edition
4.0
a lot of the economics stuff went over my head but he’s a brilliant writer
mcbibliotecaria's review against another edition
3.0
Too dense. Also bad e file of the book made half of italicized which didn't help. Might read again in the future to get everything, but just the cast of characters who have decimated the americas is just too hard to keep track of in just one title.
nannalunarscribe's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5
khiran's review against another edition
5.0
"La economía norteamericana necesita los minerales de América Latina como los pulmones necesitan el aire"
Es fascinante cómo a más de 50 años de su publicación mucho de lo que el libro expone sigue tan vigente en nuestros países.
Pienso en los poquísimos libros que puedan ser tan trascendentales e indispensables como este; cómo expone la manera en que el despojo, la inequidad, la riqueza, la ambición nos han marcado cómo región desde hace siglos y explican muchas de nuestras circunstancias actuales.
Leí una versión que tiene una reflexión del autor sobre lo que pasó 7 años después de su publicación. Me hubiera gustado algo similar relativo a su 50° aniversario, aunque es muy interesante ver los datos que menciona sobre los países tantos años atrás.
Es fascinante cómo a más de 50 años de su publicación mucho de lo que el libro expone sigue tan vigente en nuestros países.
Pienso en los poquísimos libros que puedan ser tan trascendentales e indispensables como este; cómo expone la manera en que el despojo, la inequidad, la riqueza, la ambición nos han marcado cómo región desde hace siglos y explican muchas de nuestras circunstancias actuales.
Leí una versión que tiene una reflexión del autor sobre lo que pasó 7 años después de su publicación. Me hubiera gustado algo similar relativo a su 50° aniversario, aunque es muy interesante ver los datos que menciona sobre los países tantos años atrás.
abby315's review against another edition
Just ran out of my library loan I’ll come back to it!!
a_spaghetti_western's review against another edition
5.0
4.5
Now THIS was phenomenal. Credit to translator Cedric Belfrage for such an accomplishment, though I can only imagine how transformative this would be to read in its original language.
Full transparency, I am not qualified to evaluate this book for its factual accuracy. To my knowledge, it appears meticulously well-researched, with twenty-or-so reference pages at the end citing extensive primary source material, numerous Spanish-language histories, and multiple perspectives based in the United States. For what it’s worth, this book fulfilled my every expectation: Galeano provides a sweeping history of Latin America through an explicitly anti-imperialist lens, condemning both the various Western powers who have participated in the plunder and subjugation of the region, as well as the wealthy citizens of the victim nations themselves who, Galeano claims, have betrayed their people in exchange for blood-soaked luxury:
In the author’s view, this duo — external extractor and internal facilitator — cemented the fate of Latin America’s economy to function forever “at the service of capitalism developing elsewhere” (Part I).
An added bonus: this book reads like fiction. The author defends his approach as follows:
I find Galeano’s voice particularly impactful in my favorite section of the book: “The Thirteen Northern Colonies and the Importance of Not Being Important” (Part II). Galeano’s comparative analysis of the North American and South American colonies — from the ideological and political differences between the Europeans who settled each, to the colony-core trade relations that subsequently flourished in both — will leave a hole burned in my brain, I am certain, for years to come.
I would recommend “Open Veins” to anyone with an open mind and serious interest in the region. Removed half a star, perhaps unfairly, for the fact that it was written in the '70s, which hindered my enjoyment of the text only in the sense that I could never feel completely confident that what I was reading remains, to this day, the most up-to-date presentation of available facts. Nevertheless, this in no way diminished the value of the reading experience for me.
Now THIS was phenomenal. Credit to translator Cedric Belfrage for such an accomplishment, though I can only imagine how transformative this would be to read in its original language.
Full transparency, I am not qualified to evaluate this book for its factual accuracy. To my knowledge, it appears meticulously well-researched, with twenty-or-so reference pages at the end citing extensive primary source material, numerous Spanish-language histories, and multiple perspectives based in the United States. For what it’s worth, this book fulfilled my every expectation: Galeano provides a sweeping history of Latin America through an explicitly anti-imperialist lens, condemning both the various Western powers who have participated in the plunder and subjugation of the region, as well as the wealthy citizens of the victim nations themselves who, Galeano claims, have betrayed their people in exchange for blood-soaked luxury:
The colonial economy was run by merchants, by owners of mines and of big estates, who divided up the usufruct of Indian [native] and black labor under the jealous and omnipotent eye of the Crown and its chief associate, the Church. Power was concentrated in the hands of a few, who sent metals and foodstuffs to Europe and received back the luxury goods to the enjoyment of which they dedicated their mushrooming fortunes. The dominant classes took no interest whatever in diversifying the internal economies or in raising technical and cultural levels in the population: they had a different function within the international complex they were acting for, and the grinding poverty of the people—so profitable from the standpoint of the reigning interests—prevented the development of an internal consumer market. (Part I)
In the author’s view, this duo — external extractor and internal facilitator — cemented the fate of Latin America’s economy to function forever “at the service of capitalism developing elsewhere” (Part I).
An added bonus: this book reads like fiction. The author defends his approach as follows:
I know I can be accused of sacrilege in writing about political economy in the style of a novel about love or pirates. But I confess I get a pain from reading valuable works by certain sociologists, political experts, economists, and historians who write in code. (Part III)
I find Galeano’s voice particularly impactful in my favorite section of the book: “The Thirteen Northern Colonies and the Importance of Not Being Important” (Part II). Galeano’s comparative analysis of the North American and South American colonies — from the ideological and political differences between the Europeans who settled each, to the colony-core trade relations that subsequently flourished in both — will leave a hole burned in my brain, I am certain, for years to come.
I would recommend “Open Veins” to anyone with an open mind and serious interest in the region. Removed half a star, perhaps unfairly, for the fact that it was written in the '70s, which hindered my enjoyment of the text only in the sense that I could never feel completely confident that what I was reading remains, to this day, the most up-to-date presentation of available facts. Nevertheless, this in no way diminished the value of the reading experience for me.