A review by jackwwang
Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism by Greg Grandin
3.0
An unfortunately forgettable book on a topic that deserves better. Grandin gets in his own way by not organizing the rich history he's mining from in a coherent way. American Imperialism in Latin America has way too much history to fit in 300 pages, I was hoping that this book would give me a good survey of the basic contours, but while the author DOES cover each country where the US had a significant influence, I came out of each story with more confusion. The author does not set enough context before each chapter, but dives right into indignant diatribes. I'm not saying the apparent anger in the text isn't warranted, but it gets in the way of readers looking to learn more about just what US involvement in this part of the world has been.
The most riveting parts of the books are on the period of violence, civil war, and death squad in Guatemala and El Salvador. There are some truly disturbing episodes described here, but, I suspect like many other Americans, the labels and the sides are muddled for me. I kept asking myself, just who are the Sandinistas? Which side is who on? It's a lot to keep track of.
Would have liked for the book also to cover more of US-Mexican relations going back two centuries, and also on the narcoviolence in the 90s in Colombia as well. On to the next bleak account of American neoimperialism....
The most riveting parts of the books are on the period of violence, civil war, and death squad in Guatemala and El Salvador. There are some truly disturbing episodes described here, but, I suspect like many other Americans, the labels and the sides are muddled for me. I kept asking myself, just who are the Sandinistas? Which side is who on? It's a lot to keep track of.
Would have liked for the book also to cover more of US-Mexican relations going back two centuries, and also on the narcoviolence in the 90s in Colombia as well. On to the next bleak account of American neoimperialism....