Open Veins of Latin America etc.
2009.03.06 23:13
I’m currently reading the book…
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano
…in between the time that I’m supposed to finish up an assignment :p
Just half way through, I’m already liking this book a lot, by the way the author wrenches our feelings with the true sorrowful stories of Latin America. As the sub-title implies, the book is about the continent’s long history of plundering by colonial powers and capitalists.
The foreword for the 25th anniversary edition that I’m reading —the book was first published in 1973— is by novelist Isabel Allende, who also happens to be the niece of Salvador Allende (the democratically-elected socialist president of Chile from 1970-1973, before being murdered in a U.S.-backed military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet).
Hopefully, I’ll have time to write a full review of the book, along with these other books that I’ve recently read:
1491 by Charles C. Mann.
This is also a book about the true history of America (or, after reading this book, what actually do we call the continent? :p)
How Rich Countries Got Rich… and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor by Erik S. Reinert.
A development-economics-themed book, with an insight into the hypocrisy of free trade, preached ever-so-zealously by developed countries, when they actually got to where they are today by protectionist ways. Combine this with “Open Veins” and “1491″, and you get a full package of eye-opening books (on the truth of global capitalism)…
Kicking Away the Ladder by Ha-Joon Chang.
Throw this one in along with with “How Rich Countries Got Rich” and get a more complete picture on the hypocrisy of free trade…
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive
Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the the Last 13,000 Years both by Jared Diamond.
There are —in my opinion— rarely any other books that can give better insight on the history of human civilization other than those from Diamond.
I’m planning to post some translations of Chairil Anwar’s poems too… but again, if I’m not too lazy er busy… :p
OK…
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