The Guatemala Reader: History, Culture, Politics by Greg Grandin

The Guatemala Reader: History, Culture, Politics Reviews

• 
  Johnny

  Includes 3 pages from the CIA ca. 1954 that list the 80+ Guatemalans marked for “disposal” after the upcoming American orchestrated coup against a democratically elected, agrarian reform government. Except all the names are redacted. Still. Don’t worry, the CIA told us none of them were assassinated!
  
  A thorough, well introduced reader from Grandin and co. The reader chronologically walks through documents, essays, visual media, poems, etc. from a variety of Guatemalan and non-Guatemalan authors, stretching from pre-colonial times to the current “6th century”.
  
  The war is certainly a heavy focus in this book, but the introduction points out that stepping back from this focus (and specifically American intervention before, during and after the war focused on denying autonomy and agency to an entire people) would naturalize the violence.
  
  Great reference. If you want to start somewhere, this is a good second step after Bitter Fruit.
• 
  Agustín

  This was an excellent, comprehensive read. If I ever need to know a lot about a different country, I'll probably look and see if there is an edition in this series covering it. As far as the history goes, I would've liked to know more about the peacemaking process that ended the 36 year civil war. Otherwise, this is an extremely thorough read which I would recommend to anyone needing such a text about Guatemala.
• 
  Mark Walker

  The Guatemala Reader: History, Culture, Politics
  Edited by Greg Grandin, Deborah Levenson & Elizabeth Oglesby
  Reviewed by Mark D. Walker
  The Guatemala Reader is an impressive compilation of 200 texts in a broad, comprehensive introduction to Guatemala’s history, culture, and politics. I wish I had this when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the early 70s, or when studying for my Masters at the Institute of Latin America at the University of Texas later in the decade, not to mention over eight years working with different organizations, as these materials provide a wealth of insights into the beauty and complexity of Guatemala. This book will appeal to travelers, scholars, students and practitioners alike as it presents the stark realities behind the beautiful façade.
  The editors bring together a formidable source of information about the Maya, including selections from the first piece, and an excerpt from the Popol Vuh, a mid-sixteenth-century text believed to be the single most important source documenting pre-Hispanic Maya culture. Acknowledged experts like Michael Coe provide fascinating background information on “Breaking the Maya Code”, which was made possible by a Soviet linguist who travelled from Russia to Guatemala in 1990. While there, he received a medal from Guatemala’s first civilian president, only to have modern Guatemala politics come to the fore when he received a death threat and had to depart from Guatemala in haste. Each article is preceded by insightful background information like this.
  “Acts of Genocide: Commission for Historical Clarification” provides invaluable background to understand the longstanding racism within the country. The commission describes how the army defined entire Maya communities as “internal enemies”, so the annihilation of Maya populations was intentional, even though the military’s overarching motivation was officially to “defeat the insurgency”. I’d heard of such examples of ethnic cleansing, but didn’t appreciate the history behind it until reading some of these articles. Additional articles provide a real appreciation of the incredible influx of refugees to the U.S., which, according to Exodus, the Catholic Church estimated that a million people, or 15% of the population, were displaced during the violent period of the 1980s.
  New sources of information made possible by the “Freedom of Information” act provide an additional appreciation of the CIA’s 1954 orchestrated coup that overthrew a democratic government, which led to the appalling violent period that lasted nearly four decades and included six hundred massacres in indigenous communities, a campaign the United Nations ruled to be genocidal. Such documents as the CIA’s “A Plan of Assassination” showed how they compiled lists of Guatemalans “to eliminate immediately in the event of a successful anti-communist coup.”
  More contemporary problems, such as the influx of drugs and proliferation of gangs, are chronicled in “The Untouchable Narco-State”, in which the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala told the Associated Press that 75% of the cocaine that reached American soil passes through this Central American nation. Despite this very dismal reality, the Reader includes poems, songs, plays, jokes, novels, short stories, recipes, art, and photographs that capture the diversity of everyday life in Guatemala. The many maps and photos further strengthen the broad, diverse picture of Guatemala in all its physical beauty and human suffering.
  The book is part of a Latin America series published by Duke University Press. The three editors of this Reader have exceptional backgrounds for this comprehensive undertaking. Greg Grandin is a Professor of History at New York University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History, and a truly exceptional book in its own right.
  Deborah T. Levenson is an Associate Professor of History at Boston College and the author of Trade Unionists against Terror: Guatemala City, 1954–1985 and Adiós Niño: Political Violence and the Gangs of Guatemala City from Duke University Press, and Elizabeth Oglesby is an Associate Professor of Geography and Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona. She previously worked as the editor of Central America Report and the associate editor for NACLA Report on the Americas, which I used extensively when working on my Master’s degree.
  This magnificent collage of pictures, stories and scholarly articles is not to be read in one sitting (well, it is over 600 pages) but I suggest the reader savor the book like a fine wine. In my case, I read an article, which is usually no more than three pages, each evening and have a far better appreciation of the incredible culture and historic complexities that make up “The Land of the Eternal Spring.”
  • Series: The Latin America Readers
  • Paperback: 688 pages
  • Publisher: Duke University Press Books; unknown edition (October 31, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0822351072 • ISBN-13: 978-0822351078
  
• 
  Jennifer Pletcher

  This book gives a broad review of Guatemala as a country. Politics, culture, history, livelihood - it is all in this book. It gives a wide perpsective on the country's long history of violence. It includes short stories, historical facts, poems, letters, pictures, artwork....the list is long.
  
  
  
  This book was good. It was better than I expected. When it arrived I looked at the size of it, and thought it would read more like an encelopedia, but it did not. The is really well written and full of great information. You get a complete picture of Guatemala from so many different aspects of this country. With so many sources contributing to this book, you get a wide variety of chapters that will keep you wanting to learn more. Glad I found this one.
• 
  Jordan Neben

  This book does exactly what it says on the cover, it gives a fascinating and informative introduction into the history, culture, and politics of Guatemala. In this book you will find primary source documents from people involved in world shifting politics, to poems, to recipes for traditional Guatemalan dishes. Reading this book have me a much richer understanding of this Central American nation. This was the first book in the Latin American Series I read, and it was so well put together that now I want to read every book in the series.
• 
  Joe

  Seemed like a good overview. I only wish every entry had a date.
• 
  Heather

  The most informative, comprehensive book I’ve read in the past 5 years!
• 
  AskHistorians

  These are a series of country studies that provide a valuable overview of various Latin American countries. They use both primary and secondary sources by eyewitnesses and important scholars respectively to illuminate key periods of each country’s history. They also include a trove of images, maps, and fine art. Each volume focuses on a single country. Currently, Duke has published readers about the Dominican Republic, Chile, Paraguay, Guatemala, Ecuador, Perú, Costa Rica, Cuba, México, Argentina, and Brazil
• 
  Susan Walberg

  I bought this book for purposes of research, to get some background on Guatemala for the book I am currently writing. This was a great resource, full of a variety of perspectives and documentation on historic events.