Frank Tannenbaum – författare

Into this illuminating study of the meaning of Mexico’s recent history Frank Tannenbaum has put the distillation of more than three decades of the familiarity with that country. Having traveled Mexico from the Rio Grande to the Guatemalan border, from the Gulf to the Pacific, and having been friendly with peasants, city folk, politicians, philosophers, artists and presidents, he understands Mexico as few foreigners can understand it.This is not one more travel book, but a serious, well-founded survey of what, humanly speaking, Mexico is—in terms of sociology, politics, economics, and psychology. It tells how Mexico came to be that way, and ponders on what it is likely to become.This book begins with a rapid survey of significant events from Hernan Cortés to Porfirio Díaz; continues with a searching analysis of the foreign and domestic policies of the present Mexican regime. In a final chapter it demonstrates the enormous importance to general United States foreign policy of Woodrow Wilson’s and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s conduct of Mexican-American relations.Here is a book to put on the shelf of enduring books about our fascinating southern neighbors, along with the classic works of Bernal Díaz, Mme Calderón de la Barca, Charles M. Flandrau, Ernest Gruening, Eyler Simpson, Henry Bamford Parkes, and Miguel Covarrubias.  From the Hardcover edition.

Slave & Citizen deals with one of the most intriguing problems presented by the development of the New World: the contrast between the legal and social positions of the Negro in the United States and in Latin America. It is well-known that in Brazil and in the Caribbean area, Negroes do not suffer legal or even major social disabilities on account of color, and that a long history of acceptance and miscegenation has erased the sharp line between white and colored. Professor Tannenbaum, one of our leading authorities on Latin America, asks why there has been such a sharp distinction between the United States and the other parts of the New World into which Negroes were originally brought as slaves.In the legal structure of the United States, the Negro slave became property. There has been little experience with Negro slaves in England, and the ancient and medieval traditions affecting slavery had died out. As property, the slave was without rights to marriage, to children, to the product of his work, or to freedom.In the Iberian peninsula, on the other hand, Negro slaves were common, and the laws affecting them were well developed. Therefore, in the colonies of Spain and Portugal, while the slave was the lowest person in the social order, he was still a human being, with some rights, and some means by which he might achieve freedom. Only the United States made a radical split with the tradition in which all men, even slaves, had certain inalienable rights.

"A solid background review of contemporary Latin America by an expert who has spent forty years during the region and writing and lecturing about it." - Foreign Policy Association"Anything Frank Tannenbaum writes about Latin America is required reading." - Rex. D. Hopper, American Sociological Review  "Professor Tannenbaum has given us ten keys to Latin America. They are: the Land and the People, Race, Religion, Regionalism, the Hacienda, Education, Leadership, Politics, The United States and Latin America, and Castro and Social Change ... Professor Tannenbaum has traveled throughout the Latin American countryside and knows the continent as few Latin Americanists do... His remarks are often wise and penetrating." - Hispanic American Report"Scholars will welcome the publication of these informative essays in a single volume; and no doubt the book will be well received by a growing number of general readers who have become aware of the importance of Latin America in world affairs." - The American Political Science Review "Penetrating study of ten facets of Latin American culture and society and their application to the future." - Scholastic Teacher

Frank Tannenbaum champions the need for diversity as vital to the well-being of society in the namesake essay of this book, as well as the inclusion of additional essays, such as “On Political Stability” and “The Professional Criminal.”Including the essay published in volume 61 of the Political Science Quarterly, as well as many other essays addressing power and presence in society, Frank Tannenbaum shares his views on American lifestyle and the balance of citizens and authority within communities. Though the vivid and sympathetic language of a true advocate of American tradition, The Balance of Power in Society and Tannenbaum’s additional essays approach the idea of revolutionized life in America, from reform to higher education to emphasizing the need for diversity in order to produce a bountiful society.