| "The English had been the major factor in the | | | | The book goes into much detail and evidence for |
| destruction of Iberian imperialism; on its ruins they | | | | every period and system it tackles. Yet, what appears |
| erected the informal imperialism of free trade and | | | | in the tail end, and less grounded in history but more of |
| investment." (155) | | | | a forecast of prognostication that belies all optimism, is |
| In this statement, buried late in Barbara and Stanley | | | | the Stein's belief that "the area (Latin America) as a |
| Stein's micro-tome on the economic dependence of | | | | bloc does not constitute a structure of society, |
| both Spain and its new-world colonies through the last | | | | economy, and politics perceptively transformed |
| few centuries, sums up what the pair prodigiously | | | | beyond what was present at the end of the |
| expound. | | | | nineteenth century." (198) |
| Anything but terse, the Steins move with thorough | | | | The idea that lies here is that Latin America, as a |
| inspection; from pre-colonial economic webs and | | | | whole has yet to move out from under its colonial past, |
| hierarchical constraints that existed in Europe that | | | | that it is still working under undeveloped and |
| framed the manner in which the Spanish and | | | | underwhelming politics, policies, economic systems and |
| Portuguese would carry out their affairs across the | | | | social thoughts. This is a rather bleak punctuation to |
| Atlantic, into a lengthy scrutiny of colonial economies | | | | what I believe to be a very topical and timely study of |
| and society, and finally, into the post-colonial or | | | | an area that has seen great change under some very |
| neo-colonial government, economy and culture in Latin | | | | trying situations. |
| America. | | | | Socio-economic struggles of color, breeding and |
| The authors investigate the unique conditions of the | | | | heritage, evolution of a national character, the challenge |
| colonial white elite, the social and economic caste | | | | of economic modernization and diversification in |
| systems and their eventual evolution. They elucidate | | | | post-slavery, these are all hurdles that the Latin |
| the various commercial apparatus that was to move | | | | American world has waged war against in the past |
| the Amerinds and other poor-subsistence worker into | | | | two centuries. Though, as the book rightly expresses, |
| the arms of the hacienda owner's lands, the | | | | these lands have much to do, much to address |
| deterioration of small-family ran traditional farmsteads | | | | socially, politically and economically, their growth and |
| under the wake of plantation and large land-grabs in | | | | merits they have achieved respectively in these three |
| the name of progress. The book does well in revealing | | | | arenas should not be overshadowed by the fetters of |
| the mirroring systems that the Creoles set up in the | | | | the conditions that they were placed by both colonial |
| stead of their colonial master's. | | | | and neo-colonial methodology and heritage. |