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A review by sandrinepal
Our Hemisphere?: The United States in Latin America, from 1776 to the Twenty-First Century by Russell C. Crandall, Britta H. Crandall
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.0
What? It only took me four months to finish this book. And in the meantime, I also read over forty other books, so maybe that speaks to this tome's motivational abilities?
In all seriousness, I read this book in preparation for an exam. The scope of the exam is limited to the period from the inauguration of FDR to the end of Obama's second term (1933-2017). That means that there were quite a few chapters in "Our Hemisphere?" that I ended up reading purely for context (fun?). At first, the vignette format was very appealing to me, but in the long run, I found that it rather detracted from a kind of bird's eye view of US foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere. The similarities and differences in treatment of various coups and regime changes were inevitably harder to put together in the shuffle between countries. One notable exception were the three chapters about the US's "Supply Side" strategy in the War on Drugs in Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, respectively. The juxtaposition of the three different efforts and the fact that they happened within 10-15 years of each other made comparisons and parallels easier to draw.
In all seriousness, I read this book in preparation for an exam. The scope of the exam is limited to the period from the inauguration of FDR to the end of Obama's second term (1933-2017). That means that there were quite a few chapters in "Our Hemisphere?" that I ended up reading purely for context (fun?). At first, the vignette format was very appealing to me, but in the long run, I found that it rather detracted from a kind of bird's eye view of US foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere. The similarities and differences in treatment of various coups and regime changes were inevitably harder to put together in the shuffle between countries. One notable exception were the three chapters about the US's "Supply Side" strategy in the War on Drugs in Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, respectively. The juxtaposition of the three different efforts and the fact that they happened within 10-15 years of each other made comparisons and parallels easier to draw.