Phone: 0151 794 2387; e-mail rory@liv.ac.uk
Lectures: 3 p.m., Mondays, Rendall Building LR3.
Seminars: Fortnightly at times to be arranged in Rory Miller’s office
This is one of the crucial periods of Latin American history, when a booming global economy permitted every Latin American country to experience a lengthy period of economic growth. Trading opportunities, foreign capital, and immigrants were all, to one extent or another, available. The interaction of these factors brought enormous changes both to the countryside and the expanding cities. Yet at the same time as elites grew wealthier they failed to establish stable and inclusive political systems, and economies which could survive international economic crises. In most countries too the benefits of growth were distributed in a highly inequitable fashion with the result that there was also considerable social upheaval.. This module explores the reasons for these outcomes, concentrating in particular on the main countries, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, but with opportunities for students to work on others which interest them.
Lectures are designed to introduce you to the main themes in Latin American history in this period, blending economic, social, and political approaches. They are intended simply as an outline to acquaint students with recent trends in historical research.
Seminars provide an opportunity to explore themes selected by your group in greater depth. The onus is very much on student-led discussion. At its first meeting each group chooses five topics from the list below.
To encourage students to gain a knowledge and understanding of Latin America in this period, and to deepen that knowledge in areas of their choosing.
To acquaint students with the main trends in historical research and interpretation on the region.
To encourage students to develop their understanding of the inter-relationship between economic, social, and political change.
The assessment for this module is the same whether you are registered for it as HIST243 or LATI203. There are three elements to the assessment:
10% of the final mark comes from a review/critique of one book or article that you have read for the course. This must be no longer than two sides of A4, preferably word-processed. You need to identify the main arguments of the article/book, the sources the author has used, how it fits in with the literature on the topic, and what the positive and negative points about it are.
20% comes from an assessment essay of 3000-4000 words (essays of excessive length will be penalised). There is a list of essay questions on pp. 5-6. Please note -- and this is very important -- that you are not allowed to duplicate the assessed essay work by answering a question on the same subject in the exam.
60% of the mark comes from a 2-hour examination in January. You answer two questions from a choice of nine or ten.
Deadlines are Friday 5th November for the review, and Friday 26th November for the assessment essay. The normal Arts Faculty penalties for late submission without prior permission apply. Extensions are given only on medical or serious personal grounds: in the case of ILAS students these should be sought from Dr Astvaldsson, the ILAS exams officer; all other students should send Rory Miller a written or e-mail request for an extension together with any relevant supporting evidence. Extensions cannot be granted retrospectively.
Students registered for this module as LATI203 should hand in work to the Institute of Latin American Studies; those registered for HIST243 should hand their work in to the History School office.
Work is marked on the basis of its analytical and empirical content; the extent to which it offers a structured argument supported by evidence; originality and critical ability; and its written style. Assessment essays should be fully footnoted and include a bibliography of books and articles consulted.
There is an e-mail list for the module, hist243@liv.ac.uk. All students can use this for enquiries and discussion simply by sending an e-mail message to this address. It will also be used for announcements about the module, so check your e-mail regularly.
Course materials, including seminar reading lists, will also be made available on the website http://www.liv.ac.uk/~rory/hist243/
| 27th September |
Introduction: Latin America in the Mid-Nineteenth Century |
| 4th October |
The Export Boom: an overview |
| 11th October |
Export Growth, Oligarchies, and the State |
| 18th October |
Agriculture and Rural Labour |
| 25th October |
The Popular Classes in Latin American Cities |
| 1st November |
Britain and Latin America |
| 8th November |
READING WEEK |
| 15th November |
The United States and Latin America |
| 22nd November |
The Mexican Revolution |
| 29th November |
Argentina: a Golden Age? |
| 6th December |
Brazil: Coffee, Race, and Poverty |
| 13th December |
The End of the Export Boom, 1914-1933 |
At its first meeting each group will be asked to make a selection from the list of topics below. It is therefore important to do some preliminary reading beforehand either in textbooks, or using the reading lists on pp. 6-9, in order to get some idea of what they might involve.
This section of the reading list simply provides a list of useful textbooks and books and articles covering several different seminar topics. The most useful items are asterisked.
L. Bethell (ed.), Cambridge History of Latin America, vols. 3-5
L. Bethell (ed.), Latin America: economy and society, 1870-1930 [chapters from the Cambridge History]
V. Bulmer-Thomas, Economic History of Latin America since Independence
D. Bushnell & N. Macaulay, The Emergence of Latin America in the Nineteenth Century
*T. Halperín Donghi, The Contemporary History of Latin America
B. Keen & M. Wasserman, A Short History of Latin America
T.E. Skidmore & P.H. Smith, Modern Latin America (from 1880)
*R. Thorp, Progress, Poverty, and Exclusion: an economic history of Latin America in the twentieth century
E. Williamson, Penguin History of Latin America
The best text just for this course is Bethell (Latin America: economy and society); the best to cover both this and HIST244/LATI202 is Halperín Donghi. Of the economic history textbooks Thorp is more accessible than Bulmer-Thomas for non-ESH students.
L. Bethell (ed.), Argentina since Independence
*D. Rock, Argentina, 1516-1988
*L. Bethell (ed.), Brazil: empire and republic, 1822-1930
M. Conniff & F. McCann (eds.), Modern Brazil: elites and masses in historical perspective
B. Fausto, A Concise History of Brazil
T.E. Skidmore, Brazil: five centuries of change
L. Bethell (ed.), Chile since Independence
S. Collier & W.F. Sater, A History of Chile, 1806-1994
B. Loveman, Chile: the legacy of Hispanic capitalism
D. Bushnell, The Making of modern Colombia: a nation in spite of itself
*L.A. Perez, Cuba: between reform and revolution
L. Bethell (ed.), Cuba: a short history
*L. Bethell (ed.), Mexico since Independence
B. Hamnett, A Concise History of Mexico
M.C. Meyer & W.L. Sherman, The Course of Mexican History
R.E. Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedies: a history of the Mexican people
H. Aguilar Camín & L. Meyer, In the Shadow of the Revolution: contemporary Mexican history, 1910-1989
M. Mörner, The Andean Past (on Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador)
C. Abel & C.M. Lewis (eds.), Latin America, Economic Imperialism and the State
B. Albert, South America and the World Economy from Independence to c. 1930
W.H. Beezley & J. Ewell (eds.), The Human Tradition in Latin America: the twentieth century
E.B. Burns, The Poverty of Progress: Latin America in the nineteenth century
K. Duncan & I. Rutledge (eds.), Land and Labour in Latin America
J. Ewell & W.H. Beezley (eds.), The Human Tradition in Latin America: the nineteenth century
R. Graham (ed.), The Idea of Race in Latin America
F. Mallon, ‘The Promise and Dilemma of Subaltern Studies: perspectives from Latin American history', AHR 99 (1994), 1491-1515
I. Roxborough, ‘Unity and Diversity in Latin American History', JLAS 16 (1984), 1-26
S.H. & B. Stein, The Colonial Heritage of Latin America
If you particularly wish to do an essay on a topic which is not on this list, please see Rory Miller
You are expected to compile your own reading list for your topic, using the normal bibliographical sources. The Handbook of Latin American Studies contains a long section on history every other year, and Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) lists a large number of articles. In both cases, if you use the printed versions, go first to the index at the back.
You can also use modern electronic searching techniques to find literature on Latin American history. The Historical Abstracts CD-ROM available in the SJL is very useful, and so is the BIDS system which gives you on-line access to the Social Science Citation Index and the Humanities Citation Index. For more information on this, ask at the Library Helpdesk. The Handbook of Latin American Studies is also available on CD-ROM in the Sydney Jones and on the World Wide Web at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/hlas/
1. How useful are ‘dependency' theories in explaining patterns of development in Latin America between 1870 and 1940?
2. Would Latin American countries have been better advised to do without European and US investment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?
3. Did the British government and British business interests control the political and economic life of Latin America before 1930? Discuss with reference to one or two countries if you wish.
4. Consider the view that the growth of US influence in Latin America between 1890 and 1940 was a joint project of business and government.
5. Discuss the view that elites in Latin America used the wealth accruing from the export boom to preserve their own position rather than to develop their countries. Answer with reference to one or two countries if you wish.
6. To what extent should the history of the urban working class in Latin America before 1940 concentrate on the trade unions and political parties which represented workers' interests?
7. Did the fact of emancipation make any material difference to the lives of former slaves? Discuss with reference to either Brazil or Cuba.
8. How successfully did Latin American societies integrate European immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? Discuss with reference to either Argentina or Brazil.
9. Can the cities of Latin America between 1870 and 1930 really be described as ‘cities of hope’?
10. ‘Latin American politicians were at the mercy of the large international oil companies’? To what extent is this true of this period? Discuss with reference to one country if you wish.
11. Examine the social and economic changes which resulted from the growth of coffee production in any one country in Latin America in this period.
12. Would you agree that the rural poor in Latin America found that poverty and oppression became worse during the export boom? Discuss with reference to one or two countries if you wish.
13. Assess the relative importance of different forms of rural protest in Latin America during this period.
14. How successfully did women in Latin America between 1880 and 1940 resist domination by men?
15. Why did the Brazilian empire collapse?
16. Account for the prevalence of political violence and banditry in rural Brazil between 1890 and 1930.
17. What were the disadvantages for Brazil of reliance upon coffee exports and foreign investment?
18. To what extent and why should the Radical period in power in Argentina (1916-1930) be considered a failed opportunity?
19. Why did the presidency of Porfirio Díaz end in a decade of civil war rather than a neat change of government?.
20. Explain why, after the Revolution (1910-1920), Mexico developed into what was effectively a one party state running a capitalist economy.
21. Assess the significance of the Pacific War (1879-83) either for Peru or for Chile.
22. Examine the view that the defeat of President Balmaceda in the Chilean Civil War of 1891 represented a lost opportunity for development.
23. Examine the reasons for the growth of Aprismo in Peru.
24. How significant was the First World War for Latin America’s economic development?
25. Why did the depression of the 1930s lead so quickly to the collapse of oligarchic political structures and the growth of protectionism in Latin America? Discuss with reference to one or two countries if you wish.
1. Export Growth and the Dependency Debate
B. Albert, South America and the World Economy, 1850-1930
W.L. Bernecker & T. Fischer, ‘Rise and Decline of Latin American Dependency Theories’, Itinerario 22:4 (1998), 25-45
F.H. Cardoso & E. Faletto, Dependency and Development in Latin America
S. Haber, ‘Introduction: economic growth and Latin American economic historiography’, in S. Haber (ed.), How Latin America Fell Behind: essays on the economic history of Brazil and Mexico, 1800-1914, pp. 1-33
R. Miller, Britain and Latin America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
S.C. Topik & A. Wells (eds.), The Second Conquest of Latin America: coffee, henequen and oil during the export boom, 1850-1930
A. Fishlow, ‘Lessons from the Past: capital markets during the 19th century and the interwar period', International Organization 39 (1985), 383-439 [in SJSL offprint collection #15682]
C. Marichal, A Century of Debt Crises: from Independence to the Great Depression
R. Miller, Britain and Latin America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
B. Stallings, Banker to the Third World: US portfolio investment and Latin America, 1900-1986
A.M. Taylor, ‘Argentina and the World Capital Market: saving, investment, and international capital mobility in the twentieth century’, JDE 57 (1998), 25-45
P.J. Cain & A.G. Hopkins, British Imperialism (contains two chapters on Latin America, one in each volume)
R. Miller, Britain and Latin America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
M. Monteón, ‘The British in the Atacama Desert: the cultural bases of economic imperialism’, JEcH 35 (1975), 117-133
A. Thompson, ‘Informal Empire? An exploration in the history of Anglo-Argentine relations, 1810-1914', JLAS 24 (1992), 419-436 (but also read the long and critical commentary by A.G. Hopkins in JLAS 26 (1994), 469-484)
P. Winn, ‘Britain's Informal Empire in Uruguay during the Nineteenth Century', Past & Present 73 (1976), 100-126
4. The United States and Latin America, 1850-1940
J.A. Frieden, ‘The Economics of Intervention: American overseas investments and relations with underdeveloped areas, 1850-1950', CSSH 31 (1989), 55-80 [in SJSL offprint collection, #15029]
L.D. Langley, The United States and the Caribbean in the Twentieth Century
T.F. O’Brien, The Revolutionary Mission: American enterprise in Latin America, 1900-1945
T.F. O’Brien, The Century of US Capitalism in Latin America
J.S. Tulchin, The Aftermath of War: World War I and US policy toward Latin America
5. The Oil Business, Workers, and the State in Latin America before 1940
J.C. Brown & P.S. Linder, ‘Oil’, in S.C. Topik & A. Wells (eds.), The Second Conquest of Latin America: coffee, henequen and oil during the export boom, 1850-1930, pp. 125-187
J.C. Brown, Oil and Revolution in Mexico
J.C. Brown, 'Why Foreign Oil Companies shifted their Production from Mexico to Venezuela during the 1920s', AHR 90 (1985), 362-385
G. Philip, Oil and Politics in Latin America
J.D. Wirth (ed.), Latin American Oil Companies and the Politics of Energy
6. Coffee and its Socio-Economic Impact in Latin America
K. Duncan & I. Rutledge (eds.), Land and Labour in Latin America, chaps. 7, 11, 12
L. Gudmundson, ‘Peasant, Farmer, Proletarian: class formation in a smallholder coffee economy, 1850-1950’, HAHR 69 (1989), 221-258
W. Roseberry, ‘La falta de brazos: land and labour in the coffee economies of nineteenth-century Latin America’, Theory and Society 20 (1991), 351-382
W. Roseberry et al. (eds.), Coffee. Society and Power in Latin America
S.C. Topik, ‘Coffee’, in S.C. Topik & A. Wells (eds.), The Second Conquest of Latin America: coffee, henequen and oil during the export boom, 1850-1930, pp. 37-84
7. The Ideology, Politics, and Culture of Civilian Elites, 1880-1940
[There is no good general work on this subject yet]
A.J. Bauer, ‘Industry and the Missing Bourgeoisie: consumption and development in Chile, 1850-1950', HAHR 70 (1990), 227-254
J.C. Brown, ‘The Bondage of Old Habits in Nineteenth-Century Argentina', LARR 21:2 (1986), 3-32
M. Johns, ‘The Antinomies of Ruling Class Culture: the Buenos Aires elite, 1880-1910', JHS 6 (1993), 74-100
J.L. Love & N. Jacobsen (eds.), Guiding the Invisible Hand: economic liberalism and the state in Latin America
J.D. Needell, ‘Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires: public space and public consciousness in Fin-de-Siècle Latin America’, CSSH 37 (1995), 519-540
8. The Working Class and Popular Protest, 1880-1940
G.R. Andrews, ‘Black Workers in the Export Years: Latin America, 1880-1930’, ILWCH 51 (1997), 7-29
M.M. Hall & H.A. Spalding, ‘The Urban Working Class and Early Latin American Labour Movements, 1880-1930', in L. Bethell (ed.), CHLA, IV, 325-366, and also Bethell (ed.), Latin America: economy and society, pp. 183-224
T. Meade, ‘Living Worse and Costing More: resistance and riot in Rio de Janeiro, 1890-1917', JLAS 21 (1989), 241-266
R. Pineo & J.A. Baer (eds.), Cities of Hope: people, protests and progress in urbanising Latin America
E. Viotti da Costa, ‘Experience versus Structures: new tendencies in the history of labor and the working class in Latin America', ILWCH 36 (1989), 3-50 (offprint #16545 in SJL)
9. Slavery, Abolition and Race in Brazil and Cuba
B.J. Barickman, ‘Persistence and Decline: slave labour and sugar production in the Brazilian Reconcâvo, 1850-1880’, JLAS 28 (1996), 581-634.
H.S. Klein, African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean
R.J. Scott, ‘Defining the Boundaries of Freedom in the World of cane: Cuba, Brazil and Louisiana after Emancipation', AHR 99 (1994), 70-102
R.J. Scott, ‘Explaining Abolition: contradiction, adaptation and challenge in Cuban slave society', CSSH 26 (1984), 83-111
R.B. Toplin, ‘Upheaval, Violence, and the Abolition of Slavery in Brazil', HAHR 49 (1969), 617-638
10. Immigrants and Society: Argentina and Brazil
F.J. Devoto, ‘Italian Emigrants and Argentine Society: problems of models and sources', Jnl. European Econ. Hist. 19 (1991), 329-352
H.S. Klein, ‘The Social and Economic Integration of Portuguese Immigrants in Brazil in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries', JLAS 23 (1991), 309-338
W. Nugent (ed.), Crossings: the great transatlantic migrations, 1870-1914
V. Stolcke & M.M. Hall, ‘The Introduction of Free Labor on São Paulo Coffee Plantations', JPS 10 (1983), 170-200
AHR 88 (1983) contains a forum on Argentine immigration with key articles by H.S. Klein & S.L. Baily
A.J. Bauer, ‘Rural Workers in Latin America: problems of peonage and oppression', HAHR 59 (1979), 34-63 [see also his debate with Brian Loveman on pp. 478-489 of the same volume]
N. Jacobsen, ‘Liberalism and Indian Communities in Peru, 1821-1920’, in R.H. Jackson (ed.), Liberals, the Church, and Indian Peasants
G.M. Joseph, ‘On the Trail of Latin American Bandits: a re-examination of peasant resistance', LARR 25:3 (1990), 7-54 [see also discussion of this article in LARR 26:1 (1991), 145-174]
F.E. Mallon, Peasant and Nation: the making of postcolonial Mexico and Peru
M. Thurner, ‘Peasant Politics and Andean Haciendas in the Transition to Capitalism: an ethnographic history', LARR 28:3 (1993), 41-82
12. Women in Latin American Societies, 1880-1940
A. Lavrín, ‘Women, Labor and the Left: Argentina and Chile, 1890-1925', Jnl. Women's History 1:2 (1989), 88-116 [SJSL, off print collection #17393]
A. Lavrín, Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, 1890-1940
K. Mead, ‘Gendering the Obstacles to Progress in Positivist Argentina, 1880-1920’, HAHR 77 (1997), 645-676
F. Miller, ‘Latin American Women and the Search for Social, Political, and Economic Transformation’, in S. Halebsky & R.L. Harris (eds.), Capital, Power, and Inequality in Latin America, pp. 185-206
S. Palmer & G. Rojas Chávez, ‘Educating Señorita: teacher training, social mobility, and the birth of Costa Rican feminism, 1880-1920’, HAHR 78 (1998), 45-82
G.M. Yeager (ed.), Confronting Change, Challenging Tradition: women in Latin American history
13. The ‘Modernisation' of Argentina
J.C. Brown, ‘The Bondage of Old Habits in Nineteenth-Century Argentina', LARR 21:2 (1986), 3-32
M. Johns, ‘The Antinomies of Ruling Class Culture: the Buenos Aires elite, 1880-1910', JHS 6 (1993), 74-100
A.L. Potter, ‘The Failure of Democracy in Argentina, 1916-1930: an institutional perspective', JLAS 13 (1981), 83-109
A.M. Taylor, ‘External Dependence, Demographic Burdens, and Argentine Economic Decline after the Belle Epoque’, JEH 52 (1992), 907-936
A.M. Taylor, ‘Argentina and the World Capital Market: saving, investment, and international capital mobility in the twentieth century’, JDE 57 (1998), 25-45
L. Bethell (ed.), Brazil, empire and republic, 1822-1930
J. Murilo de Carvalho, ‘Brazil, 1870-1914: the force of tradition', JLAS 24 (1992), Quincentenary Supplement, 145-162
M.A. Font, ‘Coffee Planters, Politics and Development in Brazil', LARR 22:3 (1987), 69-90 [and read the discussion in LARR 24:3 (1989), 127-158]
S.H. Haber (ed.), How Latin America Fell Behind: essays on the economic histories of Brazil and Mexico, 1880-1914
S. Topik, The Political Economy of the Brazilian State, 1889-1930
15. The Porfiriato and the Mexican Revolution
T. Benjamin & W. McNellie (eds.), Other Mexicos: essays on regional Mexican history
F. Katz (ed.), Riot, Rebellion and Revolution: rural social conflict in Mexico
A. Knight, ‘Peasant and Caudillo in Revolutionary Mexico, 1910-1917', in D.A. Brading (ed.), Caudillo and Peasant in the Mexican Revolution, pp. 17-58
A. Knight, The Mexican Revolution, vol 1, part 1
J. Tutino, From Insurrection to Revolution in Mexico
16. The Mexican Revolution and its Aftermath, 1914-1940
T. Benjamin, ‘The Leviathan on the Zócalo: recent historiography of the post-revolutionary Mexican state', LARR 20:3 (1985), 195-217
G.M. Joseph & D. Nugent (eds.), Everyday Forms of State Formation: revolution and the negotiation of rule in modern Mexico
A. Knight, ‘Popular Culture and the Revolutionary State in Mexico, 1910-1940', HAHR 74 (1994), 393-444
A. Knight, ‘Cardenismo: juggernaut or jalopy?', JLAS 26 (1994), 73-108
R. Tardanico, ‘The Mexican State and the World Crisis, 1929-1934', Review 9 (1986), 453-482
M.K. Vaughan, ‘Cultural Approaches to Peasant Politics in the Mexican Revolution’, HAHR 79 (1999), 269-308
A.J. Bauer, ‘Industry and the Missing Bourgeoisie: consumption and development in Chile, 1850-1950', HAHR 70 (1990), 227-254
T.F. O’Brien, The Nitrate Industry and Chile’s Crucial Transition, 1870-1891
V. Kiernan, ‘Chile: from war to revolution, 1879-1891', History Workshop Jnl. 34 (1992), 72-91
K.L. Remmer, ‘The Timing, Pace amd Sequence of Political Change in Chile, 1891-1925', HAHR 57 (1977), 205-250
M. Zeitlin, The Civil Wars in Chile: or the bourgeois revolutions that never were
M.J. Gonzales, ‘Planters and Politics in Peru, 1895-1919', JLAS 23 (1991), 515-542
N. Jacobsen, ‘Free Trade, Regional Elites, and the Internal Market in Southern Peru, 1895-1932’, in J.L. Love & N. Jacobsen (eds.), Guiding the Invisible Hand: economic liberalism and the state in Latin America
R. Miller, ‘The Coastal Elite and Peruvian Politics, 1895-1919', JLAS 14 (1982), 97-120
S. Stein, Populism in Peru: the emergence of the masses and the politics of social control
R. Thorp & G. Bertram, Peru, 1890-1977: growth and poolicy in an open economy
19. The First World War and Latin America
J. Adelman, ‘Political Ruptures and Organized Labor: Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, 1916-1922’, ILWCH 54 (1998), 103-125
B. Albert, South America and the First World War
R. Gravil, ‘The Anglo-Argentine Connexion and the War of 1914-1918', JLAS 9 (1977), 59-84
E.S. Rosenberg, ‘Anglo-American Economic Rivalry in Brazil during World War I', Diplomatic History 2 (1978), 131-152 [SJSL offprint collection, #17906]
J.S. Tulchin, The Aftermath of War: World War I and US policy toward Latin America
M. Conniff (ed.), Latin American Populism in Comparative Perspective
M. Falcoff & R. Dolkart (eds.), Prologue to Perón: Argentina in Depression and War, 1930-1943
S.E. Hilton, ‘Vargas and Brazilian Economic Development: a reappraisal of his attitude towards industrialization and planning’, JEcH 35 (1975), 754-779
C. Marichal, A Century of Debt Crises in Latin America: from independence to the Great Depression
R. Thorp (ed.), Latin America in the 1930s, esp. chaps. 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 12
AHR American Historical Review
CHLA Cambridge History of Latin America
CSSH Comparative Studies in Society and History
EcHR Economic History Review
HAHR Hispanic American Historical Review
ILWCH International Labour and Working Class History
JDE Journal of Development Economics
JEcH Journal of Economic History
JHS Journal of Historical Sociology
JIASWA Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs
JLAS Journal of Latin American Studies
JPS Journal of Peasant Studies
LARR Latin American Research Review
PP Past and Present