Peter Winn is Professor of Latin American History and Director of Latin American Studies at Tufts University and a senior research associate at Columbia University's Institute of Latin American Studies. He was academic director of the PBS series Americas: Latin America and the Caribbean, for which the first edition of this book was a companion volume.

• Preface to the 2005 EditionPreface to the First Edition1. A View from the South2. Legacies of Empire3. The Perils of Progress4. A Second Independence?5. Capital Sins6. Continent on the Move7. Children of the Sun8. A Question of Color9. In Women’s Hands10. The Power and the Glory11. The Magical and the Real12. Endangered States13. Making Revolution14. North of the BorderEpilogue: Latin America and the Caribbeanin the Twenty-First CenturyIllustration CreditsNotesIndex