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Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent |  | Author: Eduardo Galeano
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
Buy New: $10.00
as of 11/27/2009 06:10 CST details
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Seller: shiny_object101
Rating:  152 reviews
Sales Rank: 9429
Media: Paperback
Edition: 25 Anv
Pages: 317
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0853459916
Dewey Decimal Number: 330.98
EAN: 9780853459910
ASIN: 0853459916
Publication Date: 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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 Allendes 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 152
 The Bible for the student of Latin American Studies November 18, 2009
Anthony Defex (San Francisco, CA United States)
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!
 Not Sure about this and the Amazon rankings November 15, 2009
A. Sawyer
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Bought the book after the diplomatic conference of the Americas. I am not sure about all in the book as I have never been to any of the countries. Just recently started reading about the history of Latin America. Perplexed is the word I would use after briefly reading a few pages. Seems as though there may be an agenda here.
Super, Extraordinary Fantastic, An Eye opener November 12, 2009
Martha Galeana
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book should be read by all citizens of the world. Especially those who criticize and often times, blame their own countries for the poverty and lack of jobs. This book has helped me understand the social, and class struggle of the group movements who seek to re-establish equality for the NATIVE people and new comers. This is a great book that traces back the beginning of POVERTY for Mesoamerican people, and the beginning of the low class, working class, upper middle class, and the elite class in Mesoamerica. Something that was unfamiliar to Latin America. Yes, there were social classes in Mesoamerica but there was no poverty, no social stratification, no hunger, nor poverty.
 A bit narrow October 25, 2009
Just Anonymous (Georgia, USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had to order this when President Chavez of Venezuela gave it to President Obama.
The tennet of the book is pretty straight forward - that the latin americas and south america have been sacked by rampant capitalism which has emptied their countries of resources, exploited their people, and left the peoples of those areas poor. The book is a call to action to look for another way.
Some people think this way is communism or socialism.
However, the book doesn't go deep enough --- the Latin Americas and South Americas have been plundered since colonial times by European Powers.
It doesn't have to do with capitalism or colonialism. It has to do with the peoples of Latin and South America standing up and building value. Communism is not the answer and neither is socialism -- the answer lays in the indigenous populations of these areas:
-getting educations
-applying that education to building their countries
-accepting help from outside but not letting outsiders be they european or from wherever plundering their countries
-building for the future
I found the work a bit narrow but a good start to an important discussion.
the really dark side of capitalism September 16, 2009
Thomas Schinkel
Anyone who is serious about understanding how the pillage of Latin America has fueled five hundred years of globalization should read this book. Today's troubles with capitalism and globalization seem to be an appropriate bookend to the persistent exploitation of the soil and of the population at large. It also illustrates how the manipulation of the political process by the western nations has perpetuated vulnerability and how it has deliberately created a culture of empowerment to those who would gladly go along with the instructions from London and other Western Capitls, and of course most recently Washington. That dissenting voices were simply killed off is nothing new. It unmasks probably the ugliest side of capitalism and it goes a long way towards explaining how western Europe in particular came into its wealth.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 152
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