A history of a continent and a half cannot be contained in 329 pages (plus sources), but Chasteen gives it his best shot. This a fine introductory text, and more enjoyable to read than Kiernan's Viet Nam, but it lacks nuance or detail.

Chasteen traces two major narratives through the many nations of Central and South America. The first is their tripartite cultural heritage, combining in various ways Iberian colonizers, Africa slaves, and indigenous people. The second is swings between conservative and modernizing forces. Conservative politics, whether Catholic or based around a cuadillo strongmen, lead to stagnation and revolt. The modernizers, whether early 19th century nationalist revolutionaries, 20th century nationalists of both liberal and Marxist stripes, and 21st century neoliberals, make grand promises that never seem to pan out for the rural majorities of these countries.

I get the difficulty of writing a synthetic history covering millions of square miles and hundreds of years in a reasonable page count. And there are some things which I like, like short "counter-narrative" chapters that showcases countervailing trends. But I have little sense of South America as informed by its history.