In Review
The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical Perspective by Walter LaFeber. Oxford University Press, 1978, 248 pp., $24.95 (cloth). Excellent introduction to the history of U.S.-Panamanian...
...In this well-documented account of U.S...
...More effectively than Didion in Salvador, Graham-Yooll evokes the creeping fear that overtakes life in a police state...
...A powerfully descriptive autobiographical account of one journalist's experiences during Argentina's "dirty war...
...policy and alternative avenues for change...
...A great source of facts and figures...
...From conquest to 19thcentury civil wars, from integration into the world market through cacao and banana exports, to the enduring dominance of the populist caudillo Jos6 Maria Velasco Ibarra, from military dictatorship to the return of civilian rule, this straightforward descriptive narrative is an attempt to correct the general neglect of Ecuador by Andeanists...
...Casa de las Americas, 1987, 271 pp...
...Most memorable are his descriptions of the human toll suffered by the black West Indian laborers who built the canal and the back room machinations that went into Panama's independence from Colombia...
...This interesting examination of two formative periods in Chilean history explores the significance of class relations in shaping a country's international position...
...Written to support passage of the Carter treaty and challenge the assumptions of conservatives who opposed it, LaFeber puts forth a historical context which argues that Panama did not mature at Theodore Roosevelt's command...
...Instead, he stresses, Panamanians had developed their own sense of independent nationalism by the middle of the 19th century...
...A highly readable and informative introduction to the country of Ecuador by a former peace corps volunteer and economist...
...paper...
...Colombia, An Amnesty International Briefing . Amnesty International, 1988, 16 pp., $5 (paper...
...intervention, the author breaks down the conflict to the essential battle between an obsessed White House and a poor nation struggling to overcome dependency and underdevelopment...
...Panama Odyssey by William J. Jorden...
...Analyzing the classstate conflict in each war, the author shows how the defeat of these bourgeois revolutions decisively established Chile as a relatively stable capitalist democracy...
...It documents the use of death squads, disappearances and torture against trade unionists, Indians and suspected guerrillas...
...A State of Fear: Memories of Argentina's Nightmare by Andrew Graham-Yooll...
...Ecuador: An Andean Enigma by David W. Schodt...
...Eland, London & Hippocrene, 1986, 180 pp., $9.95 (paper...
...Mi General Torrijos by Jos6 de Jesus Martinez...
...A sweeping, epical account of the building of the canal, from the days of the French expedition to the North American takeover...
...Westview Press, 1987, 188 pp., $26.50 (cloth...
...La Jaula de la Melancolia: Identidad y metamorfosis del mexicano by Roger Bartra...
...Princeton University Press, 1984, 265 pp., $14.95 (paper...
...An historical and sociological account of the two major civil wars in 19th-century Chile...
...However, most acknowledge the valuable lessons it offers for addressing issues of U.S...
...Simon & Schuster, 1977, 698 pp., $13.95 (paper...
...A collection of ten essays that look critically at Contadora, U.S...
...Includes the inside stories of Torrijos' support for the Sandinista revolution, and the secret canal treaty negotiations with Carter in the basement of the White House...
...The Civil Wars in Chile (Or the Bourgeois Revolutions That Never Were) by Maurice Zeitlin...
...Written by the former U.S...
...Ambassador to Panama, this is a dramatic anecdotal account of the negotiation of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties on the Panama Canal...
...Jorden's first-hand knowledge of the events make the book fine and valuable reading...
...Graham-Yooll was the news editor of the Buenos Aires Herald in the 1960s and 70s, during which time his political writings made him enemies on all sides...
...According to Bartra, Octavio Paz's Labyrinth of Solitude (widely read and believed in this country) was one of several key books written in this century to invent the myth of "Mexican identity," used so effectively by the state to promote conformity with the system...
...Several are marred by their narrow East-West vision, and the authors are generally pessimistic about Contadora...
...The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 18701914 by David McCullough...
...Westview Press, 1987, 275 pp., $32.50 (cloth...
...In this great work of cultural anthropology, at once deadly serious and bitingly witty, sociologist Bartra destroys Paz's vision and offers instead the axolote, a pre-Colombian amphibious animal, as the essential metaphor for understanding Mexico and Mexicans...
...At War in Nicaragua: The Reagan Doctrine & the Politics of Nostalgia by E. Bradford Bums...
...University of Texas Press, 1984, 725 pp., $27.50 (cloth...
...hegemony, Soviet influence and internal political problems of the region...
...Harper & Row, 1988, 211 pp., $6.95 (paper...
...An insider who sipped wine at guerrilla press conferences and power-lunched with assorted military-industrial brass on a weekly basis, he was eventually driven to exile in Britain...
...The famed human rights organization's briefing on Colombia, where murder is the principal cause of death for men aged 15 to 44, is a striking indictment of that country's armed forces...
...The former philosophy professor who became Torrijos' bodyguard and confidante has written a passionate memoir of his adventures with Panama's national hero...
...Excellent introduction to the history of U.S.-Panamanian relations visa-vis the canal...
...Contadora and the Diplomacy of Peace in Central America, Volume I: The United States, Central America and Contadora edited by Bruce M. Bagley...
...Though rich in detail and including rare photographs, McCullough's journalistic account lacks political analysis...
...Grijalbo (Mexico), 1987, 234 pp...
Vol. 22 • July 1988 • No. 4
