Latin American History

Does anyone know of some good non-fiction or historical fiction books that are about Latin American History. I have one book, The Path Between the Seas arriving soon, by David McCullough. Any other suggestions.

From an admittedly (general) military viewpoint of Latin America you could try Latin America: a naval history, 1810-1987 or The Banana Wars: A History of United States Military Intervention in Latin America. The Chaco War: Bolivia and Paraguay, 1932-1935 and Chile and the War of the Pacific are very interesting books on more specialist subjects.

At The Tomb Of The Inflatable Pig: Travels Through Paraguay by John Gimlette.

I'm thinking about planning a hiking trip to either Peru or Chile. At the moment I know next to nothing about the history of either. Can anyone lend me some suggestions to get some background knowledge of those countries?

>1 thibs53: Eduardo Galeano's The Open Veins of Latin America is a compelling work written by an Uruguayan. Thomas E. Skidmore's Modern Latin America is very textbookish, but, if you knowledge of Latin American history is still sketchy, it may be a good place to start.

thibs,
Is there a specific region you are interested in, or is general history ok? I spent quite a lot of time studying LA history and the variation between general histories and more specific ones is enormous.

Im interested in finding a sweeping general history of latin america to start off with

These are some of the best general history texts for the region.

Latin American and Its People by Cheyl E Martin and Mark Wasserman is a two volume set that is highly readable and informative.

Born in Blood and Fire by Charles Chasteen is also a very good general history.

Both of these books can give you a great idea of what regions really interest you. I myself fell in love with Central America, Nicaragua and Guatemala specifically.

A good survey for US-Latin American relations would be Tangled Destinies: Latin America & The United States by Don Coerver and Linda Hall.

The Caribbean by Franklin Knight is a good text involving nations that sometimes get left out of the mainland texts.

For early nineteenth c. Latin America, Liberators: Latin America's Struggle for Independence by Robert Harvey is an interesting story of colorful personalities and societies in upheaval.

The Emergence of Latin America in the Nineteenth Century by David Busnell describes the attempts at nation building in the wake of independence.

The works of German Arciniegas are beautifully written and turned me on to the region some decades ago. Latin America: A Cultural History is good, and The Green Continent contains selections from a number of important Latin American writers on topics ranging from cities to literature to landscapes. Great stuff.

Try Conquer or Die! by Ben Hughes. Its a fascinating story of about Bolivar's British volunteers and well worth a look.