 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx. Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Thus he is concerned with gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit, hides and wool, petroleum, iron, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminum ore, nitrates, and tin. These are the veins which he traces through the body of the entire continent, up to the Rio Grande and throughout the Caribbean, and all the way to their open ends where they empty into the coffers of wealth in the United States and Europe. Weaving fact and imagery into a rich tapestry, Galeano fuses scientific analysis with the passions of a plundered and suffering people. An immense gathering of materials is framed with a vigorous style that never falters in its command of themes. All readers interested in great historical, economic, political, and social writing will find a singular analytical achievement, and an overwhelming narrative that makes history speak, unforgettably. This classic is now further honored by Isabel Allende's inspiring introduction. Universally recognized as one of the most important writers of our time, Allende once again contributes her talents to literature, to political principles, and to enlightenment. |
Average Customer Rating:    This is the typical book written by a communist or a radical socialist from Latin America This is the typical book written by a communist or a radical socialist from Latin America to hide the scandalous failures of this continent with their populist leaders at front. Pure propaganda! If you want an analytical study of Latin America, please instead read "The Latin Americans: Their Love-Hate Relationship with the United States" by Carlos Rangel due to the reasons I explain below.
Two hundred years ago two big territories were founded almost simultaneously: one of them (USA) became the first World power, while the other (Latin America) is submerged into the third world. Why?
Rangel magisterially develops in its book the answer to this distressing question and the answer is even more distressing.
Only analytic genius like him could foresee in 1986 the future of a Continent based in his research and knowledge of the integration of their people; based, also, on its history plenty of the failures of their leaders who have found several myths to compensate, hide and alleviate the incapacity to develop great nations.
Not a single person who intends to know Latin America in depth can do it without reading this exciting critical work by Rangel, which is so tough for the majority of its inhabitants that they have preferred to ignore it for years.
The Latin Americans: Their Love-Hate Relationship with the United States by far the best history of Latin America This is a complete read of how government can skew advancement, noting involvement by foreign nations, while not silent by any means, on how drastically Latin American governments themselves have hurt their own populations. (that is a skewer of another reader's comments, who said the opposite)
I find it strange but very revealing that other reviewers also denounce the book because Chavez gave it to Obama.
Chavez is a far more democratically chosen leader than Obama was. But that is beside the point.
It is a mistake to write off a book simply because a man who one may not agree with politically thinks it is a great book. Chavez also gave away free Don Quixote novels (probably the best novel ever written). And recommended people read Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky (probably the smartest humanist alive). Say what you like about Chavez he is one well-read individual.
Back to the book at hand, it is clearly the best book on the subject of Latin American history that I have heard of, absolutely and undeniably. It is akin to The People's History of the United States for the USA.
It is only the neo-liberal that would disagree. It doesn't take much to see why. Neo-liberalism has ripped Latin American apart and this book shows how better than any other.
Please read ignorant reviews critically. There are far too many reactionary neo-liberal sheep. Especially in corporate controlled America.
And remember...the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who don't take sides...
There's a Reason YOU Won't Like this Book Good art, fine art, hits a nerve. This book will rip out your nervous system....
Those who profit from imperialism will hate it. Those who pay the price will identify with it and like it.
Now look at the rating chart---no middle ground. That should tell you how good this book is.
The book Obama won't read.... Eduardo Galeano completed Open Veins of Latin America in 1970. Millions of copies of it in dozens of languages have been sold around the world since then; it has been revised several times with addenda and new introductions for anniversary editions. But the distinctive yellow cover remains the same as does the strong narrative voice which leads the reader to a seamless journey through the complexities of Latin American history and a glimpse of the future--not only of the region, but of the world. Latin America is much like the canary in the coal mine which shows us how toxic greed and addiction to cheap consumer goods can choke off our own economic breath and leave us with unprecedented levels of unemployment, urban poverty and devalued currency. Galeano's book shows us how unlimited global growth has, in the words of Ed Abbey, "the etiology of the cancer cell," whose ultimate aim is the destruction of the host.
I bought my first copy of this book in 1973 from Monthly Review Press. Since then I have bought a dozen copies and given them to friends, students and colleagues. I don't know if they've all read it or appreciated it. Like surgery, reading his book can be a painful experience, an operation to excise a lethal tumor (that of the comforting lies of the mass media) so that truth can flow again. President Obama received a copy of this book as a gift from Venezuelan Present Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas held this year in Port of Spain, Trinidad. When pressured by a "reporter" from Fox network about the appropriateness of receiving a gift from the Venezuelan leader, Osama replied, "Just because I accepted the book, doesn't mean I'm going to read it."
I first met Eduardo Galeano while walking along the Rambla in Montevideo in the late 1990s. He was amazed at the success of the book which far exceeded his own modest expectations. He was also saddened by the fact that so many Latin Americans could not afford to buy it and that so many others were illiterate so could not read it. One story which moved him was that of a student from Buenos Aires who went from bookstore to bookstore reading bits of it in snatched moments because he hadn't the money to purchase a copy. Recalling that story makes Obama's comment even more embarrassing. Galeano has more firsthand knowledge of Latin America than any author writing today. His book is written for the non-specialist but is painstakingly documented. It is accessible but not simplistic. It is history, literature, politics, economics and social science. Finally, for anyone who proposes to be an effective citizen of the Americas or a knowledgeable citizen of the world, it is essential reading. Let's hope that if Obama doesn't change his mind about reading it, he will pass his copy on to Hillary Clinton.
The Bible for the student of Latin American Studies I would like to say "Muchas Gracias!" to our good friend, El Comandante Chavez, the same guy who gives heating oil to the slum communities of America, for making this book known to me. American education under free speech and expression had kept it hidden from me I'm afraid.
The book presents many established historical facts documenting the exploitation of Latin America by the western powers of Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, and the great USA. These nations buy, and for cheap, Latin America's raw materials and pay hunger wages to Latin America's workers and then they sell the manufactured goods dearly, making some nice hefty profits in the process. Buy low, sell high!
There is no benefit of foreign investments in Latin America when five times more in profit is exported out of Latin America, mainly to the great USA.
The World Bank and the IMF are like the sub prime mortgage lenders to Latin America in the sense that the terms of the loans are predatory for Latin America.
Speaking of cheap, for those who complain that the book is a waste of money, unless you work for hunger wages, don't be a cheap [...]! The book only costs around 10 US dollars.
The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know (FDR), but unfortunately it will be very difficult for most Americans to accept the facts contained in this book since the history that is brainwashed and indoctrinated to school kids is biased towards portraying a more positive outlook of the great USA. Therefore, most Americans will dismiss this good book as being false.
This book widened my liberal education. Free trade is a euphemism, for example. We see the word free, and perhaps from being cheap, think it must be good, sort of like thinking if some food says its fat free then it must be good. We need to look beyond free and understand whether the free trade is really fair trade and we will see that it has not been fair for Latin America. So then, free trade does not necessarily mean fair trade in the same way that many fat free foods are loaded with calories.
The book changed my views of the Monroe Doctrine. The great USA was not really generous to Latin America by preventing foreign powers from re-colonizing. It was really planting the seeds of the future economic exploitation of the region. It is very interesting that the great USA demands no revolutions in its backyard (except for capitalist ones), but at the same time it meddles with Russia's sphere of influence.
It's high time for Latin America to revolt against foreign exploitation. Though easier said than done, since the current system creates too much resistance and oppression, the people must force change to enact protectionist policies, build up the local industries and agricultural capacity to be able to feed their peoples, and after that, when they can produce surpluses of goods, can they engage in free trade that is fair.
If anything, the book may help us see what is to come. In time perhaps the tables will turn and others will dominate us. The great USA has lost many manufacturing jobs, is outsourcing jobs overseas, experiencing a brain drain, borrowing lots of money from China, and so on and so forth and Great Britain has also been falling.
Come now. Be brave. Dare to learn the truth. I know its hard, but concentrate. Focus. Turn off Fox News and Read The Opens Veins of Latin America today!
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