HI115: Latin America: Themes and Problems

Welcome to Latin America: Themes and Problems! This module is much loved by Warwick students. It offers you the chance to study a region that will be new to most students as well as shedding new light on the history of regions more familiar to you. We’ll explore the huge diversity of the pre-Colombian Americas; study the violent encounters between Iberians, indigenous peoples of the Americas, and Africans that shaped what we now think of as the “modern world”; ponder unique fusions of cultures that produced samba and – if you can believe the Brazilians - “perfected” football. We will also consider the contradictions and bitter legacies of Latin American ideas about race; survey the environmental, social, and human costs of enduring economic inequalities; and examine why Latin America became home to both the Cuban Revolution and a series of right-wing military dictatorships. You’ll be taught by our team of specialist historians, who work on topics as varied as the Mexican drug trade, Latin American ideas about human rights, the history of food and the body, or the role of Afro-Latin American women in claiming freedom from slavery. Students comment every year that they love the variety of topics, the combination of group work and individual learning, and the ability to develop their own interests throughout the course.

Aims and outcomes

Gain a broad understanding of key themes and patterns in Latin American History.
Identify some of the theoretical / conceptual approaches and historiographical debates relating to the field.
Become familiar with analytical skills in comparative history.
Identify and engage with a range of relevant primary sources.
Gain interpersonal and communication skills through the delivery of a presentation and group work throughout the course.
Devise your own well-defined essay topics, collect relevant data from a variety of sources and present results in an effective fashion.

Indicative readings

If you’d like a general survey text, try:

Edwin Williamson, Penguin History of Latin America (any edition)

For the modern era, we recommend:

Matthew Brown From Frontiers to Football : An Alternative History of Latin America Since 1800, Reaktion Books, Limited, 2014.

Or, for a deeper dive on specific topics:

Rebecca Earle, The Body of the Conquistador: Food, Race, and the Colonial Experience in Spanish America, 1492-1700 (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
Kathryn McKnight and Leo Garofalo, eds., Afro-Latino Voices: Narratives from the Early Modern Ibero-Atlantic World (Hackett, 2009)
Benjamin T. Smith, The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade: https://www.thedope.co.uk/
I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (Verso, 1984)