'Probably the most thorough overview of Latin American economic history presently available … Furtado's most important characteristic as an economist is willingness to consider economic problems in their total complexity; there are no simplifications here and no easy conclusions …'. Choice

• Tables; Preface to second edition; Preface to first edition; Abbreviations; Maps; Part I. From the Conquest to the Formation of Nation-States: 1. Introduction: the land and the people; 2. Economic and social background of the territorial occupation; 3. First half of the nineteenth century; Part II. Entry into the System of International Division of Labour: 4. The transformation of international trade in the second half of the nineteenth century and its impact on Latin America; 5. Reorientation of the international economy in the present century; 6. Some indicators of the degree of development reached in Latin America; Part III. The Traditional Structural Pattern: 7. Characteristics of agrarian structures; 8. Distribution and utilisation of the social income; 9. Monetary and foreign exchange systems; Part IV. Characteristics of the Industrialisation Process: 10. The industrialisation process (i); 11. The industrialisation process (ii); 12. Imbalances created by import-substituting industrialisation: structural inflation; Part V. Reorientation of Development in the Recent Period: 13. Evolution of macroeconomic structures; 14. Agricultural sector; 15. Industrial sector; 16. Inadequate growth and the reorientation of development; Part VI. International Relations: 17. Traditional forms of external dependence; 18. New forms of external dependence; 19. Towards the restructuring of the international economy; Part VII. Intra-Regional Relations: 20. Integration process in Central America; 21. LAFTA and the Andean group; Part VIII. Structural Reconstruction Policies: 22. Economic planning experiments; 23. Agrarian reforms; 24. Economic aspects of the Cuban Revolution; 25. Present problems and prospects; Bibliography; Index.