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462 reviews for:
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
Eduardo Galeano
4.29 AVERAGE
462 reviews for:
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
Eduardo Galeano
4.29 AVERAGE
Me ha parecido muy interesante, incluso necesario (más todavía como española a quien contaron la historia desde otro punto de vista). Sin embargo, se me ha hecho más denso de lo que esperaba. Creo que necesitaría releerlo para asimilar toda la información.
Il sistema trova il suo paradigma nell'immutabile società delle formiche, per questo non va d'accordo con la storia degli uomini, perché essa è un cambiamento continuo e perché nella storia degli uomini ogni atto di distruzione trova, prima o poi, una risposta in un atto di creazione.
2.5 stars. Not really readable for my tastes. It felt like a collection of statistics one after another without a lot of context or elaboration. Yes, the statistics are awful and paint a clear and obvious picture of exploitation, but I need something a bit more personal. Or at least personal stories more often. For a non-fiction book written by a novelist, I didn't find much flow, just recitations from other sources.
An essential primer on why Latin America is the way it is today. Detailed account of colonial atrocities and exploitation of the land. This book will give you a solid foundation to continue your Latin American studies.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Fantastic book. I now feel like I better understand not just that the underdevelopment of Latin America is a prerequisite to the development of North America and Europe, but also how and why this process unfolds. You neither need to be an economist or a historian to understand what Galeano is doing here, but rather someone who truly cares about the well-being of all who share this world, which is perhaps the most truly revolutionary act here. A bit dense at times but incredibly rewarding to get through.
I liked the thesis of Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America. I also agree with his analysis and data. But, I thought his presentation hurt his cause. It read more like a polemic, a preaching to the choir rather than an effort to persuade. He doesn't write in an overly technical or esoteric style, following his own belief that scholarly work often obfuscates or creates texts only for internal use. But he never connects with me, as a reader. I was instantly and profoundly drawn into Ernesto Guevara's The Motorcycle Diaries. That work connected through his prose and letting others tell his story for him. Galeano's work is more about ideology and less about humanity.
Having said that, this is a good introduction to the history of Latin America. Paired with other works, e.g. the Guevara work and The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital (Lisa Lowe & David Lloyd, eds.), you will garner a good understanding of the role of imperialism, neoliberalism, colonialism and political economy in Latin America.
I'll close with a quote from Galeano's final paragraph: "In these lands we are not experiencing the primitive infancy of capitalism but its vicious senility" (p. 285).
Having said that, this is a good introduction to the history of Latin America. Paired with other works, e.g. the Guevara work and The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital (Lisa Lowe & David Lloyd, eds.), you will garner a good understanding of the role of imperialism, neoliberalism, colonialism and political economy in Latin America.
I'll close with a quote from Galeano's final paragraph: "In these lands we are not experiencing the primitive infancy of capitalism but its vicious senility" (p. 285).
This is a fantastic overview of Latin American history (originally pub 1970s). I especially appreciated that it is written from a Latin American perspective, not United States or European. Most definitely recommended.
This book is SO BEAUTIFUL- i think a lot of hardline numbskulls would be disappointed because as a book on political economy it takes less of a scientific approach and more of a journalistic one, but galeano addresses this in the epilogue:
"I know I can be accused of sacrilege in writing about political economy in the style of a novel about love or pirates[...] Hermetic language isn't the invariable and inevitable price of profundity[...] For all its revolutionary rhetoric, a language that mechanically repeats the same cliches, adjectives, and declamatory formulas for the same ears seems conformist to me."
So it's light on citations, but heavy in personal anecdote and the experience of an author immersed in his country, his continent, in all of its exploitation. it comes across as a lot more personal and pained than marx, in that case, which i'd argue is entirely warranted, while retaining the intelligent socio-economic analysis!
Much like those texts it inhabits a part of history that might seem past at first glance, but further inquiry will reveal its relevance has only grown more acutely. thats the value here and it's totally worth reading and studying.
"I know I can be accused of sacrilege in writing about political economy in the style of a novel about love or pirates[...] Hermetic language isn't the invariable and inevitable price of profundity[...] For all its revolutionary rhetoric, a language that mechanically repeats the same cliches, adjectives, and declamatory formulas for the same ears seems conformist to me."
So it's light on citations, but heavy in personal anecdote and the experience of an author immersed in his country, his continent, in all of its exploitation. it comes across as a lot more personal and pained than marx, in that case, which i'd argue is entirely warranted, while retaining the intelligent socio-economic analysis!
Much like those texts it inhabits a part of history that might seem past at first glance, but further inquiry will reveal its relevance has only grown more acutely. thats the value here and it's totally worth reading and studying.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced