Contemporary Latin America presents the epochal changes in the cultures, governments, economies and societies of Latin America at a critical moment in the region's history. Beginning in 1970, a decade before the tumultuous changes of the 1980s, Holden and Villars analyze the decline of the old era in order to fully highlight the significance of later developments. The authors identify the central tendency of these changes as liberalization or openness, and present them in the context of the Latin American nations' rich history both as overseas kingdoms of the Spanish and Portuguese monarchies, and as self-emancipated republics. They emphasize the global, national and local dimensions of the region's recent past, while highlighting the persistence of deep-seated historical legacies that have continued to shape contemporary Latin America. Each chapter is divided into sections covering relevant pre-1970s trends, post-1970s trends and the particular experiences of individual countries. The book focuses on "Ibero-America" - Brazil and the eighteen countries that were formerly Spanish possessions - while offering valuable comparative views of the non-Iberian areas of the Caribbean.

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